The Day After
by P. Chuu
Summary: My take on what might have happened the day after Sarah Williams returned from Jareth's Labyrinth after rescuing her brother, Toby. J/S (Rating for some cursing and small amounts of violence)
1. The Arrival

**The Day After**  
by pixeechuu  
pixeechuu@aitenshi.nu

  
**_Disclaimer:_ I own only Grandad Michael and Grandma Alice; none of the original 'Labyrinth' characters in this story are mine, although I wish they were! They are not my creations, and I would never presume to say they are. In Chapter Eleven, Jareth quotes the first sonnet (La Vita Nuova) from Dante's "Inferno," and in Chapter Thirteen, he sings a few verses from Dan Fogelberg's "Nether Lands."**

  
**- chapter.1.the.arrival -**

  
    "Sarah?" The voice speaking her name was warm and rounded, a soothing voice Sarah knew from years of gentle comfort and laughter. Accompanying the voice was a shaft of light from the hallway outside of her bedroom door; the light slashed across Sarah's face and, instinctively, she curled her body into the fetal position in her bed, trying--unsuccessfully--to hide her face under her blanket. "Sarah, honey, are you awake?"

    "Is she awake?" This voice was higher, a little strident. When Sarah heard her step-mother's voice, she knew there was no way that she was going to be able to go back to sleep. Occasionally, when her father woke her, he had the decency to leave her alone, let her doze back off. Not the same with her step-mother. If she wanted Sarah awake, Sarah had to wake up.

    "What?" Sarah mumbled from beneath her blankets, her voice throaty as she tried to wake up, her tone annoyed and tired--which was exactly how she was feeling.

    "Sarah? We're sorry to wake you up, but--"

    "What time is it?" Sarah asked, cutting her father off. She sat up in bed, yawning hugely. 

    "Seven o'clock, honey. We're really sorry to wake you up, especially since you had to stay up late last night looking after Toby while we were out, but something's come up." Her father pushed her door open further, the shaft of light becoming a wave of light that made the shadowy places in Sarah's room appear darker. He stepped into the room, and went over to sit on the edge of Sarah's bed. "We would have let you sleep in, but something's happened," her father continued, his strong, square jaw tightening a little. 

    "What's wrong?" Sarah asked, suddenly alarmed. Had Toby vanished again? Oh, God, that RAT! If Jareth had taken her baby brother after she had beaten him fairly at his own game...

    "Adelle's mother is in the hospital," Sarah's father said softly, glancing back at his wife as he said it. She stood in the doorway imperiously, head tilted as she watched Sarah and her husband talk. As he delivered this news, however, she deflated a little, her face taking on lines that had not been there a moment before, becoming haggard and very tired.

    "Oh?" Sarah asked, trying to sound interested. She had never really liked her step-mother's parents, despite the fact that they made friendly overtures to her each time they came over to visit her step-mother and -brother.

    "She had a heart attack last night, Sarah. It wasn't bad, but she needs to stay in the hospital for a few days to recuperate. Until she gets back home, Granddad Michael is going to be alone in their house. I know you can see where the problem is," her father said gently, taking one of her hands into his two larger, work-roughened hands.And Sarah could see the problem. Granddad Michael, though a nice man, had very bad Alzheimer's. Sometimes, he didn't even recognize himself. Without Grandma Alice there, the man was very likely to forget to eat or forget to stay near the house and not wander off."Adelle and I think that she and I should drive down to Lee to stay with your granddad for the day--maybe for a few days." Sarah's father's voice was gentle, patient, and soft, but Sarah felt a sudden anger welling up in her. She did NOT want to spend several days of her summer break down in Lee, away from her possessions, room, and dog.

    "But, I don't want to go!" Sarah said sharply, tugging her hand away from her father's.

    "We didn't think you would," Adelle said dryly, crossing her arms over her chest.

    "We don't want to up-root you in the middle of summer vacation, Sarah. We were hoping you might be willing to stay at home today and watch over Toby."

    Instantly Sarah's relief at not having to go to Lee was over-whelmed by annoyance. Once again, good old dependable Sarah was being asked to watch after her baby brother. 

    "A hospital is no place for a baby, and we can't expect Granddad Michael to watch Toby," Adelle announced with finality. "We knew you wouldn't want to go--it only makes sense that you stay here and watch your baby brother." With that, Adelle turned and left the doorway, heading downstairs.

    "Daddy," Sarah whined, drawing the world out to six syllables.

    "Now, Sarah... I know this is hard on you. It's hard on Adelle and me, too. She and I both had to take off work today, and we may have to take off tomorrow, too. But she and I can't leave Granddad Michael alone. Now be my good girl, Sarah. I have to go finish packing some things. We'll be leaving in a few hours." He rose from the bed, gave her a quick kiss on her forehead, and left, shutting the door behind him.

    Sarah sat in a brooding darkness for several minutes before sighing, and standing. She had a few hours to herself, anyway. She could go to the park and recite to Merlin--that always relaxed her.

    Sarah had changed into her long white Renaissance dress and was just pulling her hair back when a loud rumble of thunder interrupted her. She dashed into the hallway outside her room, and over into her parents room to look out the huge bay windows. What she saw was a dark and gloomy morning that was being drenched in earnest from the brief spattering of rain that had chased her home the night before. The storm had definitely come back in full force.

    "Ohh, it's not _fair!_" Sarah cried, glaring out the windows at the dripping leaves of a tree.

    "Sarah?" She turned at her father's voice, pouting faintly.

    "What?"

    "Adelle is really worried this storm might slow us down. It's a good two hours to Lee in good weather, and you know how these summer storms can become nightmares in just a few minutes. She and I are finished packing now, and we ought to be leaving. She's actually putting our luggage into the car right now."

    "You're leaving now?!" Sarah clenched her hands inside the long, draping sleeves of her white gown. "I wanted to go to the park with Merlin!"

    "I let Merlin out to go to the bathroom when we got up this morning, Sarah. He won't need to go out right now. Besides, it's pouring--neither of you should be out in this." He crossed the room, giving her a warm squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. "Toby's apparently decided to sleep in this morning--try not to wake him if you can help it, and your morning should go easily. Adelle and I are going now, honey. I'll call you if we decide to stay in Lee overnight." 

    Sarah sighed, slumping dejectedly against the wall next to the bay windows, crossing her arms over her chest. Her first day back from the Labyrinth was not going exactly how she had expected. Since no one on Earth but she and Toby knew about their adventures in the Labyrinth, and since only she really knew to what ends she'd gone to save her brother, she didn't really expect fanfare or a party. But being coerced into baby-sitting Toby _again_just didn't seem right to her, especially after the what she'd gone through the night before to keep him safe.

    "And not a single word of thanks from anyone," Sarah muttered under her breath. She heard Toby shifting and fussing softly in his crib, and walked over to look in at him. He was just waking up, his eyes still dozy and unfocused, a heavy yawn stretching his tiny rosebud mouth. Sarah felt herself softening a little--when he wasn't crying, Toby could be a truly enchanting baby. And it wasn't really HIS fault that she had to watch over him.

    "Uhhn!" Toby exclaimed, clamping his hands onto the bars of his crib and pulling himself into a sitting position. "Uhh-uhhh-uuuhhh!"

    Sarah recognized the tell-tale squeezing of his face, the reddening of his cheeks, and the tone in his voice--he was in one of his moods. 

    "Oh, no," Sarah muttered, reaching down and lifting Toby from the crib as she'd seen Adelle do so many times when Toby got fussy. "C'mon, Toby, don't be like this..."

    "Uuhhaaaawww!! _Aaaaaaa!!_" And now he was crying in earnest, his voice piercing, his face going dark red.     "C'mon, c'mon... Toby, stop!" Sarah bumped him on her hip, up and down, trying to calm him. He just redoubled his wails, his cheeks becoming glossy with tears.

    "I _hate_ this!" Sarah cried, feeling tears in her own eyes. "This isn't fair!"

    Suddenly, outside, thunder crashed. It was so close to the house that it completely drowned out Toby's wails for a moment. Sarah started, spinning toward the windows, pulling Toby close to her side. Her heart was hammering in her chest. For a moment, she felt a tingling anxiety slither through her, making the back of her neck quiver. 

    _Something's going to happen,_ she thought suddenly, putting a hand on Toby's back as the child squirmed and sobbed. _Something horrible..._

    She stood in tense silence for a moment, with nothing but Toby's choking wails and the sound of rain booming off the roof. Slowly, her heart returned to a normal beat, and she sighed deeply. 

    _What a silly thought. Nothing's going to happen. I'm just still keyed up from last night, that's all._

    Sarah hefted Toby in her arms, repositioning him on her hip, speaking gently to him as she did. 

    "What is it, Toby? Are you hungry?"

    "Aaaaa!! Nnnnaaaaa-aaa-aaaa!!"

    "All right, come on then. Let's go warm up a bottle."

    She turned, taking a step toward the door. Thunder boomed again behind her, and this time, it didn't die off in a rumble but grew louder, deafening, a horrible roaring that made the windows shake.

    _No, not shake..._ Sarah thought, her spine gone rigid. _That sounds like..._

    The windows shattered. Glass sprayed into the room--Sarah felt it pelting her back as she dipped her head, hugging Toby close to her body to try and protect him from the spray of glass. Cold rain splattered against her back, and as the thunder faded, she felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck rise. Her heart was hammering wildly again, and this time it had a very good reason. Someone--besides she and Toby--was in the room. 

    _No... please, no,_ Sarah thought, trembling. Toby's howls had quieted to hiccoughs, and he was staring over her shoulder with wide-eyed wonder, shocked out of his tantrum.

    _I won't look. I don't care. I will not turn around._ She clutched Toby tighter, as if he were her only life-line in a stormy sea, and he squeaked a soft protest. Suddenly, irrationally, she thought, _If I don't turn around, if I just walk out of the room, then nothing will happen. When I come back, the window will be in one piece again, and nothing bad will happen to us._

    But she _was_ turning, a perverse desire to see who was behind her making her turn slowly, head down, her eyes locked on the glass-littered, rain-darkened carpet.

    Since her eyes were down, the first things she saw were black boots with pointed toes and many silver buckles. As she raised her eyes slowly, she felt her heart picking up speed, its hammering becoming a literal spasming as she saw tight gray breeches on shapely legs, then a white Renaissance shirt, strong arms crossed over a broad chest, golden hair falling gracefully over rounded shoulders, and finally the face. It was exactly as she remembered it from the night before--proud, mocking, smirking in obvious pleasure at her fear. Sarah's heart gave a little skip, then seemed to stop. She felt a darkness rising up around her, a thick black hand squeezing her head, prompting her to just pass out, to just let it all go. She fought for coherence and consciousness, black dots swarming before her eyes. It was he. It was Jareth. 


	2. Wicked Games

**- chapter.2.wicked.games -**

  
"Hello, Sarah." The same voice, cultured, rich, with a crisp British accent.

"I... I..." Her chest was heaving, trying to draw air that suddenly felt heavy and thick into lungs weak with shock. Her lips were tinglingly numb and cold, and her body felt like lead.

"Oh, come come," Jareth said, uncrossing his arms and taking a step toward her, a gust of wind accompanying him, riffling his golden hair, blowing her own dark hair back from her face. "There's no need to look at me like that."

"No need?" This came out an incredulous squeak, and Sarah felt the numbing shock leaving her, anger taking its place. "_No need?_"

"Uhhhn!" Toby whimpered, cringing away from her shout. She rubbed his back automatically, glaring at Jareth.

"You stole my baby brother last night! I think there's plenty of 'need' right now."

"I did not 'steal' him. I took what was willingly offered. Or do you deny now that you wished him onto me?" Jareth smirked as he said this, his thin lips drawing back from his teeth. 

"I don't deny anything! But I didn't know you were _really_ going to take him!"

"Don't play dumb, Sarah; you knew perfectly well what I would do when offered a child by a willing young woman. You've read all the stories--"

"Yes, _stories_," she interrupted, pulling Toby closer to her chest, holding him possessively against herself. "I didn't think they were _real_."

"Well, of course you did," Jareth said, tilting his head back a fraction, his eyes narrowing, "or you wouldn't have said the words at all. If you hadn't expected some action to result from your speaking, you would certainly not have spoken."

Sarah frowned, opening her mouth to reply and finding that she had nothing to say. She snapped her mouth shut, steely eyes shooting sparks at him.

"Get out."

"I don't think I should," Jareth replied with maddening calm. "In fact, I'd like to come _in_, and get out of the rain." He moved forward, brushing past her before she could reply. The carpet before the window was thoroughly soaked now.

"I haven't wished Toby away again. You have no right to be here! _Get out!_"

"I have no right, do I? What was it you said?" He paused, bringing one darkly-gloved hand up to his face, one long, aristocratic finger resting on his chin, his eyes focused far away. "I think it was, 'I don't know why, but, every now and again in my life--for no reason at all--I need you.'" Jareth paused, allowing his eyes to rest on Sarah. "'All of you.'"

Sarah's mouth had gone dry and her stomach heaved, turning over in her belly. As Jareth had said the words, she had heard them in her own mind, her own soft voice speaking them through the pain of loss the night before. She _knew_ those words--she'd _said_ those words.

"You did say that, didn't you?" Jareth's voice was dry and sardonic, the corners of his mouth turning up faintly.

"Yes, but..."

"But?"

"I didn't mean _you!_" She gasped the words out, backing up a few steps toward the shattered window at her back.

"Oh, you didn't?" Jareth's tone was amused, and he allowed himself a flashing, brilliant smile at her expense. "You didn't leave me out, by any means. Or did you mean to say, 'All of you except Jareth?'"

"You stole my baby brother!" Sarah cried, moving back another step, the rain fairly soaking the back hem of her white Renaissance dress. "You forced me to run your Labyrinth! I was chased by monsters, I was thrown into an oubliette, and I was hounded every step of the way by _you!_ And now you expect me to welcome you?"

"Well, of course not," Jareth responded, walking toward the door of her parents' bedroom, long legs eating up the distance. "I didn't expect any welcome at all. But I _was_ invited."

"Where do you think you're going?" Sarah growled, dashing after him, Toby still in her arms. "Jareth, get back here!"

He ignored her, heading across the hall into her room. A flush traveled up her neck and into her face. He was in her _room_, the most private part of her life!

"Get out!" she snapped, standing in the doorway, her head raised in an imperious tilt very much like her step-mother's had been that morning.

Jareth glanced up at her from his inspection of a small doll on her vanity table. "Not a very good likeness, you know," he murmured, giving the plastic doll a little jiggle in his hand. Sarah flushed again angrily, and stormed up to him, snatching the statue from his hand and plunking it back onto the cluttered vanity table.

"Get _out_ of my room!"

"Tsk, tsk," Jareth scolded, his tongue clicking as he settled himself regally into her desk chair. "I am your guest, Sarah. People don't just order their guests around--at least we don't Underground. I'm not quite sure of the customs Above."

Sarah had been angry before, but his scolding her like she was a small child was what pushed her over the edge. She was in a blind fury as she reached down with one hand, the other still hugging Toby to her chest, and snagged Jareth's white poet shirt. She jerked hard, and Jareth was forced to rise from the chair or risk losing a hunk of his white shirt. 

"What do you think--" Jareth began angrily, but Sarah cut him off, rising onto her toes to thrust her face close to his.

"You. Are. Not. Invited." She snapped each word out like a thrust from a rapier, her gray eyes flashing at him. "You. Are. Not. Welcome. I do _not_ want you here!"

Jareth's dually colored eyed flashed back at her, and he opened his mouth, almost snarling the words at her. "How _dare_--"

"_I am not finished!_" Sarah tone was harsh, and she gave his shirt another jerk to let him know she was serious. "You have done nothing but hurt both me and Toby since I _stupidly_ called on you last night."

"I _never_ hurt him or you! If you'd just think--"

"Shut up!" She snapped the words out, and Jareth's eyes widened slightly. She was not behaving at all like the confused and frightened girl he'd watched wind and wander through his Labyrinth. Of course, she had shown more emotion than just fear at times--determination, even some anger. But Jareth had never seen her furious like this.

_Of course,_ Jareth thought to himself, _she wasn't on her own ground before. Now I've come into _her _home... she's much more comfortable here. She probably feels it's safe enough to show her temper._

"Are you listening to me?" Sarah growled, giving his shirt another jerk to get his attention. His eyes refocused on her face, and a frown marred his handsome features. "You have done nothing but trouble both Toby and me. I have no reason to want you here, Jareth!" 

"Sarah," he began, trying to sound calm, but she cut him off again, wrapping her fist more firmly around the chunk of shirt she held.

"You practically tortured me! You distracted me to keep me from saving my baby brother. My _baby brother_," she repeated, emphasizing the words. "My innocent baby brother, Jareth! You set traps for me, you tricked me, you cheated me..." Her eyes were growing hazy with tears, and she blinked hard, giving his shirt another abusive pull to get her anger back. "You did nothing but hurt me, and now you think I'll welcome you into my home?"

Jareth was frowning openly now. He wasn't used to being lectured. And he definitely wasn't used to being manhandled by angry young girls.

"You disgust me, Jareth! You get your thrills from stealing babies and setting impossible odds against the people who want to get them back! You really _are_ a rat! A stinking, squeaking, slinking, cowardly--"

"_Enough!_" The single word came out a roar very similar to the thunder that had announced his entrance earlier. He'd listened to her argument without losing his temper, but now she was getting insulting.

"I am not through!" Sarah snarled.

"Oh, yes, you are, Sarah!" Jareth snagged her hand in his, untwisting his shirt from her fingers. She snatched her hand back with an offended gasp, and Jareth's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Don't you touch me!"

"You invited me here," Jareth said, his thin lips drawn back over his teeth again in a snarl. "Whether you meant it for me or not, you did. By the magick that rules life, that means I am invited. You cannot take it back, and you cannot banish an invitation spoken so willingly and with such longing. The magick will not permit it!" His voice was rising, along with his temper, and he saw the fire slowly going out of Sarah's eyes. Her arms were wrapping around the child, who was watching the exchange with open curiosity. "You may not understand the magick that rules over life both Above and Underground, but I DO, and an invitation given cannot be taken away. You have invited me, Sarah--you invited me and all of the creatures you encountered Underground. While they may be willing to wait for a second invitation before showing up again, I am not."

"Of course you aren't," Sarah snapped, getting in her own low blow before Jareth over-ruled her.

"No, Sarah, of course I'm not." He glared coolly at her, his sardonic brows lowering over his dually colored eyes threateningly. "I am not a patient man, Sarah. I am also not the type of man who will let someone beat him at his own game."

"You aren't going to take Toby again, are you?" There was the barest tremble in her voice as she spoke, and she turned from him slightly, shielding the baby with her own body.

"Of course not. I have no use for a child, Sarah." His voice was growing less angry now, the words coming out gently.

"But you said you didn't let people beat you at your own game. Aren't you going to take him?"

Jareth sighed, seating himself in her desk chair again. "I don't 'let' people beat me, Sarah. But, I didn't 'let' you beat me, did I? I wasn't soft on you, was I?"

Sarah gave a little snort. "No, you sure weren't."

"No," Jareth agreed, his voice getting slowly warmer as he stood from the chair, moving over to stand a few feet in front of her, raising his hands in an "I-mean-no-harm" gesture. "You are my equal, Sarah. Of all the people to challenge the Labyrinth, only a handful ever made it to my castle beyond the Goblin City. They, however, could get at best a draw--their lives in return for letting me keep their children. You, however, solved my Labyrinth, fought your way through my castle, and won both your life and the child back. Out of all the people I've encountered, you are the only one who has ever been successful, Sarah." His voice was growing gentler, softer, taking on almost a crooning note. "You are much stronger than I thought you were when I first saw you. I should have known not to offer you pale imitations of your dreams. The crystal wasn't what you wanted. You deserved to have your dreams as reality, something you can touch." His voice was literally crooning now, soft, persuasive, nullifying, almost like a lull-a-bye. "You are so much more than other girls, Sarah, and you know it. You deserve to be a princess, Sarah. You deserve to have your every whim granted."

_How odd I feel,_ Sarah thought dumbly, her mind muddled.

"You deserve to have subjects worshipping you," Jareth continued to croon, his eyes locking with Sarah's, drawing her in. "You deserve to live the life you always wanted, drifting in leisure and comfort."

_So odd... almost like I could go to sleep standing right here by my dresser, with Toby in my arms._

"You should have a castle full of servants bowing to your wishes."

_My legs feel... well, not like legs. They feel like flower stems, bending before a strong breeze._

"You would like that, wouldn't you, Sarah? To have a castle of your own? Servants at your beck and call?"

"Oh, yes," Sarah murmured between numbed lips, her eyelids growing heavy. In her arms, Toby yawned, blinking slowly.

"You would like to be a princess, wouldn't you? Living away from this world, all of your dreams becoming reality?"

"Yes, I would," Sarah whispered, meaning it whole-heartedly. To escape the monotony of her life--of a nagging step-mother, of the boredom of school--and live her dream would be wonderful.

"Really?" Jareth's crooning voice changed with the word, becoming the same sarcastic, mocking voice he'd used through the Labyrinth to taunt her. The numbness faded away like frost in the sun, leaving behind a ringing emptiness.

"What did you do?" Sarah gasped, backing up until her shoulder blades touched the wall.

"I didn't do anything, Sarah. I offered you your dreams... and you accepted the invitation whole-heartedly." His lips lifted in a wicked smile, his sarcastic eyebrows rising. "You have been invited Underground, Sarah... and you've accepted."

"No... no!" Sarah cringed back into the wall, and Toby gave a small whimper.

"Come now, Sarah. It's time we left."

"You can't make us go, Jareth! Toby and I are not leaving!"

"Toby?" Jareth's smile grew wider, his teeth shining. "Who said anything about Toby?"

A chill ran through Sarah's body then as she suddenly realized to what she'd condemned herself. She was going to have to go back Underground... to the Labyrinth... without even a quest for Toby to distract her from the nightmare.

"No!" Sarah choked, her eyes filling with stinging tears. "I can't... please, I can't..."

"Shh, you can." Jareth's hand on her shoulder was gentle, the warmth of his skin creeping through the thin sleeve of her Renaissance gown and through the thick leather of his glove. "It will be all right, Sarah. Come along now." A wind was beginning to blow, ruffling the skirt of her dress, making the sleeves of Jareth's poet shirt flutter. "Just hold on tight."

Tears coursed down her cheeks, blowing away in the quickening breeze before they could get to her chin, and Sarah realized she _could_ hold on to Jareth--Toby wasn't in her arms anymore.

"Toby?" she gasped, trying to spin and leave, but Jareth's arms were around her then, enveloping her like the wings of a predatory bird, and she couldn't see the door to her room, and the wind was chasing away all sounds but its own rushing. She raised her voice, nearly shrieking. "Jareth, no! _Jareth!_"

"Just hold on," Jareth replied, his voice cool in her ear, muffled by the strong wind. Sarah struggled briefly in his arms, and the wind become a hurricane around her, dark and roaring, buffeting her, threatening to knock her down. Instinctively, she clutched at the only solid thing left, wrapping her hands in Jareth's shirt. She felt like she was screaming--her throat was burning as if she were--but she couldn't hear anything over the wind. Jareth's arms tightened around her, and she felt the violent whirlwind sweep the ground from beneath her, and then everything faded to darkness for Sarah. 


	3. Trapped Below

**- chapter.3.trapped.below -**

  
Sarah came to slowly, her creeping consciousness buffering the shock she was sure to feel upon fully awakening. Jareth watched her silently, his aristocratic face impassive and expressionless, observing the rise and fall of her chest and the faint movement of her eyes behind her eyelids as indicators of how conscious she was becoming.

Jareth disliked having to use such strong magick to whisk her away to his castle, but he'd been forced into it. All had stood on the edge of a knife for a moment in her room, when she had nearly wrenched herself free of his arms. Had she escaped him, gone into her parents bedroom, she would have found everything righted--Toby sleeping peacefully in his crib, the window unshattered, and the storm Jareth had created slowly blowing itself out. He'd had to call inside the wild and disorienting winds from the storm to keep her from escaping, a cheap trick he disliked using. 

_However,_ he admitted to himself silently, his brows drawing together, _it did work. She is here._

And so she was. Sarah was literally in Jareth's lap. Upon arriving at the castle, Jareth had tried to disentangle Sarah's hands from their clutch at his shirt to no avail. He did not really mind the grasp on his shirt, a position she had affected when the winds picked them up and moved them through reality to put them Underground. She'd passed out as soon as her world dropped from her, but apparently unconsciousness did not work on her hands, for they had remained locked on Jareth's shirt even once they'd both been set firmly down in his throne room. Deciding to give her an easy metamorphosis from her old life to her new one, Jareth had sent all the goblins out of the throne room, then carefully settled himself--and Sarah--onto his elaborately twisting throne. They'd been there for nearly ten minutes, and Sarah was just beginning to awaken from her faint.

Suddenly, Sarah's eyelids twitched, opening partway, then sliding shut.

_She's coming out of it. This should be interesting,_ Jareth thought, a wry grin twisting his mouth slightly on one side and his sharply tilted sarcastic brows lifting minimally.

  


************

  
"What a nightmare," Sarah murmured softly, sighing, rubbing her cheek against her pillow. She'd dreamed Jareth had come back and, instead of Toby, tried to take _her_.

_Well, that's to be expected. It was just last night you beat him at his own game,_ Sarah thought, allowing herself a triumphant smirk. She yawned, trying to nuzzle back into her pillow, but her pillow wasn't giving under her cheek as it normally did. Immediately, she picked up on what she really should have picked up on sooner--the soft 'whooshwhish' of breath going in and out of lungs, and the thumping of a heart. With a gasp, she leaped back, eyes flying open. Quick as lightening, Jareth's hand shot out, catching Sarah by her upper arm, saving her from a nasty fall off the dais his throne rested on. Sarah jerked out of his grip quickly, her eyes flashing gray fire at Jareth. She stumbled back a few feet, her dark hair falling about her shoulders--the wind had torn it completely free of its bindings on her journey over.

"Where..." Sarah began, then stopped, looking around. She'd gotten only the briefest of glimpses of this room the night before, but she recognized it--Jareth's throne room. That monster... he'd actually done it. Kidnapped her into the Underground.

"Have you had a good nap?" Jareth asked, his voice dry and sardonic.

"Toby!" Sarah gasped in reply, looking around sharply. "Where's Toby?"

"He is fine, Sarah. He's back at home, in his crib."

"He's a _baby!_ He has to be fed and changed and watched over at every second, Jareth! He can't just be left alone!"

"He isn't alone. If you'd just _listen_--"

"Send me back! I have to watch Toby!"

"Sarah, calm down and listen to me for a second. Toby is--"

"He needs me, Jareth! I'm the only one who can take care of him with Dad and Adelle gone! How long have we been here? How long has Toby been alone? Oh, God, he's got to be so frightened right now. Please, send me back!"

"That is _enough_." Jareth stood from his throne, stepping down off the dais and approaching Sarah with firm, steady strides, forcing her to scurry backwards from him until she ran into a wall. "Now _listen_ to me. Toby is perfectly fine. Your parents received a call as soon as they arrived at your grandparents' house. A distraught 'neighbor' calling to inform them that you had apparently been spirited away by someone."

"A 'neighbor?'" Sarah repeated, frowning. 

"Well, all right--it was me. But they were home in just over an hour after they got the call, and found Toby asleep and perfectly content."

"You monster," Sarah whispered, her features twisting in shock. "You've had this planned, haven't you?"

"Not really," Jareth replied. "I had a few details worked out, but I wasn't sure that your parents would even leave today. I had to work on chance, and hope that if they didn't leave, I could convince them in some way."

"You... convince... you _monster!_ You gave Grandma Alice a heart attack!" Sarah found herself suddenly beyond words, her fury over-coming her common sense for a moment. She lunged at him, but Jareth caught her hands in his own easily, holding her by the wrists. She tried to kick at his ankle, but he quickly side-stepped her, avoiding the violence of her temper tantrum easily.

"I did no such thing. I don't go around giving old women heart failure for enjoyment--"

"No, you just steal babies!" Sarah snapped, jerking her hands away from Jareth's grip, glaring at him and panting.

"Toby is no longer your responsibility or your concern, Sarah. The only thing that should concern you now is your own pleasure. You are going to be a princess here--your every wish will be granted immediately, without question. You can do what you please and go wherever you want from now on."

"I want to go _home!_"

"Sarah... you _are_ home." Jareth's smile was dazzling in its brilliance, much like new-fallen snow is dazzling when the morning sunlight hits it and sends millions of sparkling points of blinding brilliance into the sleep-hazed eyes of a young child. However, like snow, his smile was also cold, distant, and untouchable.

"No... you can't keep me here, Jareth. I won't _let_ you!" Jareth was completely unprepared for the sudden fist to his gut--it was so out-of-character for the calm, rational young woman he'd watched last night. Of course, he should have expected it, as irrationally as she'd been behaving a few moments before. When her fist connected, it knocked the breath out of him, and he doubled over, arms wrapping his stomach as Sarah dashed from his throne room, her feet pounding the stones as she fled from him. After a few moments of gasping and coughing, Jareth laughed softly, going slowly to his window that over-looked the Goblin City. He could just see the glimmer of white and black as Sarah dashed through the gate and into the Labyrinth.

"Oh, Sarah, Sarah... you really think you can escape me like that? A promise made to magick cannot be so easily broken." Jareth paused, rubbing his chin lightly with one gloved finger. "Besides, just as I can twist the Labyrinth to keep you from reaching the Goblin City, I can also twist it to bring you right to my own castle door. Oh, Sarah... this isn't over yet."

Sarah had known she couldn't escape. After all, she had only made it to the Labyrinth with Jareth's help--she knew there was no way to leave the Underground without Jareth's magick. She didn't expect to escape, not really. Sarah needed a few minutes to herself. She'd had an awful morning, and it didn't appear to be getting any better.

Sarah stopped only a few turns into the Labyrinth, and collapsed onto the hard stones of the pathway, pulling her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees, and then dropping her head forward onto her arms. She gave a quick, soft sob, but no tears came with it. She sighed, raising her head to glance around. She didn't recognize this part of the Labyrinth at all.

"That's fine," Sarah sighed, pushing herself up and wiping herself off as she glanced around. "I found my way to the Goblin City once, and I can do it again. Besides, it might give me some time to think." She glanced down at her feet--still sore from all the trekking she'd done the night before--then sighed. "Sorry, feet... looks like we're going to be walking again today."

Sarah quickly found that the Labyrinth was a wonderful place for thinking, as long as one didn't have a pressing quest to complete. She moved slowly, head down, lost in thought, kicking fallen leaves and small stones ahead of her as she moved.

_All right, Sarah... let's try and figure out exactly where we stand,_ Sarah thought to herself, wrapping her arms around herself wearily. _Jareth has abducted you into the 'Underground,' as he calls it. What motives could he possibly have?_

Sarah stopped walking to hold her hand up in front of her, counting off the possible motives on her fingers.

_Number One: He wants revenge. Okay, if he wants revenge, why didn't he just kill me back in Daddy and Adelle's bedroom?_ Sarah paused, considering this, then shrugged and continued on her path. _Maybe he doesn't want to kill me. Maybe he just wants to humiliate me. Well, if that's what he wanted, he got it--he made me cry, he made me beg, he even made me completely lose my temper. I haven't resorted to physical violence against another person since... since... well, except for defending myself against goblins, I can't even remember the last time I actually resorted to physical violence!_

"Damn," Sarah muttered, realizing she'd walked into a dead end. She sighed, turned around, and headed back the way she'd come, still trying to puzzle out the mystery of Jareth.

_Okay, if he just wanted to humiliate me, why hasn't he sent me back home? And why make all those arrangements for Toby if he was only trying to be cruel?_

Sarah stopped short, glaring at the wall which had suddenly appeared before her. "_Another_ dead end? Fine." She turned again, her steps getting harder, her feet pounding the stones. Her lips were pressed together in annoyance, and she glared at the cobbles beneath her feet, daring them to give her another blank wall. To try and break the silence, she spoke out loud, her voice seeming to shimmer in the still air.

"Okay, I'm not here for revenge or humiliation. I can't image Jareth bringing me here for anything nice, like a reward. Besides, I think my reward was getting to keep my life and Toby's life. So, if it's not for revenge, humiliation, or a reward, what did he bring me here for? What's left?"

"What about companionship?"

Sarah's feet skidded on the stones and she jerked her head up so fast that her neck smarted. Somehow, she'd managed to get out of the Labyrinth and right to one of the huge doors that led into the castle. Sarah looked around herself in a shocked silence for a moment, then stuttered, "I... I don't remember going through the Goblin City."

"You didn't," Jareth replied, his cultured voice soft. He leaned against one side of the arched doorway, arms crossed on his chest, one leg braced firmly on the ground, the other leg crossed nonchalantly at the ankle over the bracing leg.

"What do you mean, I didn't? I'm not an idiot, Jareth. 'The castle beyond the Goblin City.' Are you saying that I just passed right over the Goblin City?"

"No, Sarah. I've shifted the Labyrinth to bring you right to my back door. Look behind you."

Hesitatingly, Sarah turned, looking over her shoulder. Indeed, there was an opening in the wall, and she could see twists and bends leading off into the Labyrinth. As she looked at it, the opening seemed to shimmer, growing opaque, then solid. Between two blinks, Sarah found that the opening was gone--it was nothing but wall.

"That's a dirty trick," she snapped, turning to glare at Jareth.

"It brought you back here, didn't it?" Jareth straightened, taking a step down toward her. "You'll need to eat soon--you've had nothing all day, I'm sure."

"How do I know eating food here won't trap me here, like Persephone in the Underworld?"

"Because you've already eaten something from 'here,' and it didn't trap you."

"What? No, I didn't."

Jareth gave a little twirling shake of his hand, then smirked, tossing something toward her. Sarah caught it automatically, then felt her jaw drop as she looked down at the perfect, blushing fruit she held in her hand.

"Recognize it, Sarah?" Jareth's smile had turned cruel and mocking, and Sarah felt a flush going up her throat and into her cheeks. Her nostrils flared, and she flung the peach at Jareth's mocking face. He ducked, barely avoiding the flying fruit, his golden hair shimmering.

"You rat," she ground out, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.

"Temper, temper," Jareth replied, trying to keep hold of his own. "Come inside, Sarah. It's time you had some breakfast. And it's time we work out the details of your new life here."

Sarah could think of nothing to say, and she stormed up the steps, brushing past Jareth, her gray eyes flashing at him as she moved. Jareth made a negligent motion, and the doors behind him responded automatically, slowly sliding shut. The boom of their closing chased the steel out of Sarah's spine, and the anger out of her heart. To her, they sounded like that gates of a prison cell slamming shut behind a condemned inmate.

_Condemned,_ Sarah thought, her shoulders slumping in miserable defeat. _Just like me._


	4. Unwanted Confessions

**- chapter.4.unwanted.confessions -**

  
It was the bleakest meal Sarah had ever eaten. The food was good enough and she was very hungry, but the knowledge that she was a prisoner in an inescapable Labyrinth dampened her spirits so badly that her food tasted like dry, crumbly sand.

"Are you not enjoying your food, Sarah?" Jareth was watching her over the rim of the elaborate wine glass he held before himself. Sarah glanced up quickly, her brow wrinkling.

"It's very good," she replied politely.

"But you aren't enjoying it." It wasn't a question, but Sarah forced a smile and tried to speak around the dryness in her mouth.

"I'm not very hungry, I guess." Her stomach chose that moment to let out a loud rumble, and she flushed, glancing down in fury at her traitor of a stomach.

"You can't enjoy the food, can you?" Jareth rose slowly, the lights in the dining hall making shimmering stars of gold appear and shift in his hair. He moved toward Sarah, his poet shirt fluttering faintly, and she rose out of her chair quickly, alarmed. He tightened his lips faintly in annoyance, and made quelling motions at her with his gloved hands. "You don't have to act so frightened of me."

Sarah's gray eyes flashed accusation at him, and her voice was bitter as she quoted back at him, "'You cowered before me; I was frightening.' Do I misquote you, Jareth?"

Jareth's thin lips grew thinner as he glared at her, his voice soft. "Careful, Sarah."

"Or what?" Sarah shot back, realizing she was not just playing with fire, but throwing dynamite into an active volcano.

Jareth strode over to her, catching her behind her head with one strong, black-gloved hand. His other hand locked on her upper arm. Gently--but with irresistible strength--Jareth titled her head up, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"I have been kind to you, Sarah. I offered you a choice in coming to the Labyrinth with me--I did not force you."

"No, you _tricked_ me!" Sarah snarled, trying to jerk away from him. Jareth's hand tightened faintly on her upper arm, and he gave her head a little shake, keeping his palm firmly behind her neck.

"I did not trick you. I offered you exactly what you've always wanted, and you accepted. You have invoked magick, Sarah. You brought it into your life last night when you called on it to send Toby to my castle. It is with you now, whether or not you want it. And it is not as easily dissuaded as I may be. I can be turned away with the right words. You cannot chase off the magick, Sarah. And you cannot change what is." He gave her head another quick shake, and Sarah felt her jaw jutting out in furious resentment. "You are here now, Sarah. You are going to stay here. There are no rules to this game. You cannot escape. You cannot be rescued, because no one knows you're here except me." He thrust his face close to hers, the tip of his long, Roman nose brushing against hers. "Except me."

Sarah slapped him. It was a good slap, with all of her fury and the weight of her arm behind it. Her palm connected smartly with his fine-boned cheek, the smack loud in the still room. Jareth reeled back, releasing her head and other arm. Sarah was panting and shocked, staring first at her hand--which was smarting angrily--then at Jareth's slowly reddening cheek. She had punched him earlier because she'd had to escape. Her only excuse for hitting him this time was that she'd lost her temper.

_Oh, God, I can't believe I just did that. What is _wrong_ with me? What was I _thinking_? Did I completely lose my mind?_

Jareth's gloved hand rose slowly to his cheek. As his fingertips brushed the red mark of her palm on his face, he jerked in pain. Jareth's nostrils flared, his jaw tightened, and his lips pressed together. His eyes narrowed as he glared at Sarah. There was a long moment where Sarah stood cringing, expecting at any moment to be struck down by his wrath. However, Jareth eventually released a lungful of air, and rubbed a gloved hand over his face.

"I apologize for forcing you to do that, Sarah. I was provoking you, and I realize that."

It was the last thing Sarah expected to hear, and she frowned, certain it was a trick.

"I've not been a very good host since you arrived. I've enticed you to fight with me since you woke in the throne room. After I mocked you for being a bad hostess at your own home, I turn around and make an even worse example of myself." Jareth paused, carefully rubbing the mark of her palm on his cheek. "I apologize for that."

"I... and... I'm sorry for... leaving my... my handprint... on your face." Jareth's apology had her confused. He hadn't struck her as the type to apologize for his deficiencies, but here he was, apologizing in the nicest way she'd been apologized to by anyone in a long time.

"Since you are going to be here for awhile," Jareth said, moving toward her again, "I feel I should show you your room." He crooked his arm, offering her his elbow. She hesitated a moment, heart pounding. Other than the violence she'd inflicted on him, she hadn't really _touched_ him. After a long, tense moment, she put the tips of her fingers on the proffered arm. Jareth gave her the briefest of nods, then began walking. Sarah found she had to almost skip to keep up with him--his long, breech-covered legs took one step for two of her own. Jareth seemed not to notice, lost in thought. At first, Sarah was glad for the quiet of their walk--it gave her a chance to try and memorize the way they were taking to her room. However, she soon realized that even if Jareth had given her a map and marked the exact route, she would never have been able to find her room. It was down too many corridors, twisting and turning, slipping up stairs and down hallways. She gave up on memorizing the path, and tried to relax in the silence around them. Eventually, though, the silence began to grate on Sarah's nerves, and she spoke up.

"You know your way around pretty well."

Jareth glanced over at her, his step faltering slightly, torn from his private musings. "I've lived here awhile."

"Really?" Sarah asked, only a little curious.

"A very long while."

"I guess that helps in navigating your way around. I'm already completely lost."

"You'll learn your way around, too. After a year, you'll be as familiar with the main paths as I am."

Sarah's mouth snapped shut. 'A year.' Hearing her sentence proclaimed like that, with such calm, made her stomach twist, and for a second she worried she might be sick. Slowly, the nausea passed, and she sighed, trying to force her voice to be steady.

"How am I supposed to find my room again?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jareth stopped, and smiled at her suddenly, disarming her. "Anything in the castle is easily found if you just concentrate on it. You are no longer an invading enemy here, but a princess. The castle will mold itself to suit you. Should I have willed it, your room would have been just a brief hallway and a staircase away from the dining hall."

Sarah frowned at this, not entirely comfortable with the idea of the castle being able to shift and change around her. "Well, if you could have willed it, why didn't you? My feet aren't exactly feeling snug and comfortable at the moment."

"I apologize. I needed some time to think. You see, Sarah, I had an ulterior motive in bringing you here." Jareth's expression was one of a young boy caught making mischief, a boy who fully expected a strong scolding from an angry nursemaid.

"Why am I not surprised?" Sarah muttered. "All this high-brow talk about granting my wishes and making me into a princess... I didn't think that was all there was to it."

"Sarah, I had good reason for inviting you here." Jareth ignored Sarah's quick, derisive snort at the word 'invited' and continued speaking. "I am lonely, Sarah."

"That isn't my worry!" Sarah snapped, crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance.

"No, but it is _mine_," Jareth responded, an edge creeping into his voice. "I wanted a companion, someone to spend time with me. The goblins are not good companions, although they are loyal and obedient. When I first saw you... you were so sparkling and innocent. I knew I had to have you. When I faced you in my Labyrinth, I found that you were neither loyal to me, nor obedient to my wishes. That only made me want you more." Jareth paused, moving forward to open a door by Sarah's elbow. "Your room."

Sarah was grinding her teeth, breathing hard in an attempt to keep her temper. He really _had_ planned it all. He'd planned from the beginning to carry her off.

"You said when you first saw me... in Toby's room. You decided then you were going to take me? Then why offer me your... your cheap imitations of dreams? Why not just give Toby back then?"

Jareth blinked at her angry tone, obviously confused at her reaction to his confession. After a moment, he shook his head, his blond hair sliding like silk over his strong shoulders before settling again. "No, Sarah. I saw you before I appeared in Toby's room."

If Jareth had known Sarah better, he would have seen the dangerous flare in her eyes. Students at her high school had learned to run when Sarah's eyes got that particular glint in them, since it usually meant she was about to heap verbal abuse onto someone.

"Before Toby's room?" Sarah repeated, her voice painfully calm and even--another warning that she was getting dangerously close to complete meltdown.

"I've watched you for years, Sarah." Jareth's eyes got a far-off look in them, as if he were remembering. "I can still remember the first time I saw you. You don't remember it of course--I blocked it from your memory years ago." Sarah's spine went ramrod straight, and her shoulders pulled back. "You were only five years old, and you invoked my power. You had a stuffed bear, if I remember right, and you were asking me in a small, piping voice to take it from you. Your shining innocence captivated me. I knew then that I needed only wait until you were old enough to take you, give you the life you deserve. I've watched you since then, Sarah... eleven years of watching you grow, becoming more beautiful and ethereal every day. Sometimes, it seemed watching you was all that kept me sane down here, in this dark, decaying world."

That was it. She'd had it. The idea of him watching her all the time was what pushed her over the proverbial edge.

_Has he been watching me constantly, or on and off? Has he seen me _shower_?_ she thought, resentful anger making her cheeks flame. He'd been... stalking her. Following her. Watching her like some sort of deviant pervert.

"I'm glad you've enjoyed the last eleven years of watching me, Jareth," Sarah said, her voice calm. She reached up, grabbing the edge of her open door, stepping past it, into the room. "Because you are _never seeing me again!_" She slammed the door with all the force she could muster, then threw herself onto the bed, trembling with fury. 


	5. Memory of a Child

**- chapter.5.memory.of.a.child -**  


Jareth stood outside the closed door a moment in shock, then his features twisted into a malicious, nasty expression, and he raised his hand to destroy the door, ready to scare her into submission. It was his common sense that stopped him mid-tantrum though, pulling the magick back, leaving his fingertips tingling and bereft.

_You've just given her some rather momentous news,_ Jareth thought, lowering his shaking hand to his side. _She took it well, considering. How did you expect her to take it, after all?_

Jareth sighed, rubbing his hands over his face wearily, before turning and walking down a short corridor. He glided down the staircase, then walked into his throne room, the castle molding itself to take him directly where he wanted to go. The goblins, sensing that Jareth had left the throne room, had all returned. Few looked up when he entered, entranced in their small, idiotic pastimes. He stalked over to his throne, and threw himself into it, propping his calves onto one of the arms. He hadn't really expected Sarah to give in without a fight. He probably wouldn't have enjoyed it if she had. But her rejection of his honesty hurt him. It left him feeling sick and anxious, something he couldn't remember feeling for years.

"Damn it," he muttered, leaning his head back, stretching the suddenly tight muscles in his neck. He hadn't expected so much trouble with Sarah. He hadn't fooled himself into thinking it would be easy to win her over, but he had hoped he wouldn't have to be patient--he was not a patient man.

_You should be,_ a voice in his head told him, that nagging voice that often made the most sense when he was in a temper. _You've been alive for how long now? What's a few more years on top of the hundreds you've already passed through?_

"Shut up," he muttered, dark brows drawing together.

"What?" A goblin looked up from the entrancing pastime of pushing small stones back and forth. Jareth glared at it until it quelled, and returned to its rocks.

Of course, that nagging voice of his conscience was right--he should be patient. He'd waited eleven years for Sarah to call on him again, as he'd known she would.

_Yes, I implanted that suggestion well,_ Jareth thought with a self-satisfied smirk. And the innocent mind of five-year-old Sarah had been so easy to implant a suggestion in.

Jareth felt a warm, glowing ache in his chest as he remembered her then. The sun had been shining on her dark hair, bringing out the highlights, making it glow with an ethereal light. Her gray eyes had been so trusting, her smile enchanting. She'd lifted her stuffed bear toward him in minuscule fists, proclaiming in her small voice, "I wanted to give him to you."

Jareth groaned. He'd known then that he had to have her. She was like... sunlight. The shining sunlight of a fresh morning, melting the shadows out of his dark soul. But even an immortal like he knew that the world--both magickal and mundane--would not accept his love of the child. He would have to wait, be patient, until she had grown.

He had taken the doll that day, held it in his hands, infusing it with a magick of its own. It was a slow-acting magick that would stay with Sarah for years to come, slowly influencing her thoughts and decisions.

"What is his name?" Jareth had asked her, clasping the stuffed bear in his palms, crouching to peer at her, his fingers gently tingling as he forced the magick into the very molecules that held the bear together.

"Lancelot," the young Sarah had proclaimed proudly, pronouncing the name with a practiced ease.

"I won't take Lancelot with me today, Sarah. But I will see you again." Jareth had handed the bear back to her, and she had cuddled it warmly, smiling. He'd reached out, touching her temple fleetingly, taking only a moment to look deep into her eyes, speaking without words, sending the words directly into her young mind, carefully tucking it into the very folds of her brain.

_**You will call on me again, Sarah. Many years from now, when you are frustrated with the world and need magick in your life again, you will call on me, and I will come.**_

He had departed then, fading slowly, watching the girl as she held her bear in her arms, her chin tucked onto its head, the magick already infusing her.

Now, he sat in his throne room, that innocent young girl grown into a young woman who resided only a short walk away from him. And he couldn't do anything about it, because she was as likely to break his aquiline nose as invite him into her heart.

_You've really made a balls up of this, Jareth,_ he thought, stretching, repositioning himself on his throne. _You just couldn't resist trying to impress her with your power, could you? You had to try to be all that you _thought_ she wanted--you fool. You unbelievable, egotistical fool._ With the practiced ease of a conjurer, he drew a crystal out of the air, holding it gently in a gloved hand, picturing Sarah. After a moment, the crystal shimmered, colors appearing and solidifying, drawing themselves into an image of Sarah in her room. She was crouched on her bed, her face streaked and shining with tears, her huge, gray eyes haunted.

How many times had he watched her through his crystals as she lived her life on Earth, existing in the sunlight while he hid in shadows? How often had he felt this same growing burn in his chest as he saw her in pain? He frowned, realizing that for once he had only himself to hate for causing her pain. This was no unkind word from a step-mother, or the teasing of an impolite youth. He had caused these tears.

The crystal shattered in his hand as his concentration broke, dissolving into shimmering points of light that drifted in the air like autumn leaves before vanishing. Jareth stood, meaning to go to her room, apologize to her. He stepped off his dais, then stopped, realizing that a visit from him was the last thing she needed right then.

Jareth felt jangly with the anger in him, and shifted from foot to foot for a moment, before deciding to lose himself in the castle for awhile. It had been awhile since he'd been able to lose himself, since the castle was so willing to twist itself for him now. He felt confident if he just kept walking, though, he would be able to find one of the darkest corridors and stay there until his temper was under control. At the moment, kicking goblins and tormenting the creatures in the Labyrinth--his usual methods of temper control--would be as ineffectual as putting a salve on the stump of a severed arm.

With a quick mental twist, Jareth changed his clothes, the old ones dissolving into the new ones like frost melting and leaving behind grass. The new clothes were entirely black--a color that matched his mood perfectly--and had a long cape, a dramatic touch by which Jareth felt comforted slightly. He strode out of his throne room, the cape flapping behind him like the single wing of a wounded bird.

********* ***

_I wonder how long I've been sitting here?_ Sarah sighed at the thought, and pushed herself up off her bed, walking over to the large vanity table against one wall, looking into the mirror. Her tears had dried up hours ago, and since then she'd just been sitting in a numbed silence, watching as darkness slowly fell outside of her window. Just as her room had begun to grow dim enough that her eyes were straining, candles in sconces had lit around her room as if invisible servants had been standing by--with invisible tender boxes.

The mirror gave Sarah a bleak picture of herself--her eyes had dark shadows under them, and her hair had grown slightly tangled. Her face looked pale, almost like a wraith.

_I hardly even noticed the passage of time,_ she thought, rubbing at her cheeks to try and get some color back in them. They remained stubbornly pale, and she pinched them spitefully. They blushed after the abuse, and she nodded. _If it hadn't been for the candles, I don't know if I would have even gotten up._ At that moment, her stomach let loose a long, drawn out grumble.

"Oh!" Sarah said, startled by the noise in the silence of her room. "I guess YOU'VE noticed time passing. I hardly ate anything for breakfast, and it must be well past supper time now." Her stomach responded with another gurgling snarl, and Sarah sighed. "Since I'm going to be here awhile, I guess I should make up with Jareth." She frowned. "Even if he is a stalking, sick devil of a person."

Sarah glanced around the vanity table--laden with far too many brushes, combs, hair pins, and shimmering, carefully molded cut-crystal bottles of perfume for her to use even if she stayed a million years in the castle (_But I won't think about that,_ she told herself firmly). Eventually she settled on the least ornate brush on the table, drawing it through her dark hair until it laid obediently flat. She replaced the brush, and went to the door. She paused with her hand on the knob, trying to remember what Jareth had said about the castle.

_Anything in the castle is easily found if you just concentrate on it... the castle will mold itself to suit you._

"Okay," Sarah said, straightening her back, and addressing the door as if it were listening, unsure of exactly how a magick castle was supposed to be handled. "I want to go to Jareth." She paused, then added, "Please." With that said she opened the door and stepped out, shutting the door behind her. _On second thought,_ she decided suddenly, reaching back to the door, _I'd better leave it cracked in case I get lost and have to find it again._

As it turned out, she needn't have bothered. The hallway, which had been full of doors and so long that the ends faded into a blur when she'd first seen it was now short and lead only to the right. To her left was a wall with an elaborate sconce on it. Sarah shrugged, and headed right. Almost immediately, the hall turned, leading to a short stair, which led to another hallway, and finally an arched doorway. There was no door, and Sarah was unsure whether to knock or not.

_Do you knock on doorways without doors in them?_ she wondered, before finally deciding a simple "hello" would work just as well.

"Hello? Jareth?"

There was a pause, then the shadows in the doorway seemed to part, revealing a glimmer of golden hair. Jareth stepped out of the doorway, and Sarah retreated back a few steps. He stopped just out of the doorway, and Sarah had to concentrate to keep him in focus--his all-black outfit embraced him as exactly as the shadows behind him, and he seemed to melt into them. If not for his pale face and shimmering hair, she wouldn't have been able to see him at all.

"I uh... I was wondering if it were too late for supper," Sarah said finally after the silence between Jareth and her had grown into a living thing.

"Too late?" Jareth's eyes darkened faintly. "For so many things, I think it may be. But for supper, no. Follow me."

He did not offer her his arm this time, and Sarah felt a stab of annoyance. _Aren't I a princess?_ she wondered, pressing her lips. She scurried after him, then caught up and put her fingertips gently on his elbow without invitation, refusing to follow behind him like a cringing dog. He glanced down at her quickly, eyes narrowing in confusion. Then he lifted and crooked his arm, making it easier for her to hold onto it. They walked along like that in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Jareth spoke, his musical voice floating in the quiet hallway.

"I didn't mean to offend you earlier."

"I over-reacted," Sarah replied with forced brightness. _Please, please, don't talk about it,_ she added in her mind, her jaw tightening. _I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to _think_ about it. Please, just don't..._

"I probably should have waited awhile before bringing it up. I shouldn't have thrust it onto you your first day here."

"That's okay," Sarah responded automatically. "Forgive and forget."

"I admit my confession was a bit to take in. I didn't mean to shock you with it. I just wanted to be truthful with you, Sarah."

"Oh, that does it," Sarah muttered, jerking her hand from his arm. "You wanted to be _truthful_ with me? I guess I should have expected that from someone who steals babies and cheats at his own game."

Jareth snapped a sharp look at her, his dark brows falling over his eyes like thunderheads gathering over a pristine lake. "I am trying to be civil, Sarah. You could try it, too."

"Damnit, Jareth, why do we even have to talk? Why can't we just... just walk? I just want to eat and go to bed. I don't want to have any heartfelt discussions, or work out all the little problems that make you like you are."

"That make me like what?" His voice was empty, cold.

"What?" Sarah asked, glancing up at him, her face annoyed.

"The little problems that make me like I am. Make me like what?"

Sarah waved a hand at him as if she were trying to chase off an annoying gnat. "Like this. Brooding, sneaking, all frowning and unhappy."

A smile glittered over Jareth's face, too bright and obviously forced. Sarah felt taken aback; it was so hard to keep up with his wild mood swings.

"Who says I'm unhappy, Sarah?" His voice was soft, dangerous, clashing with the bright smile.

"You said yourself you were lonely," Sarah snapped.

The smile stretched, becoming something very like a snarl as his jaw clenched. "Then I lied. Wouldn't that be in keeping with my character?" 

He didn't wait for a reply, turning and leaving her, his cape slapping against the hem of her dress.

"Your supper will be in your room," he said over his shoulder, not even turning to give her a final glance. "And I will see you in the morning."

Then Sarah was alone in the hallway, left with her smarting pride. 


	6. Revelations

**- chapter.6.revelations. -**

  
Sarah awoke abruptly the next morning. She was not given the protection of a slow awakening, something that would have lessened the shock. She awoke suddenly and found herself laying in the huge, ornately carved bed in her room within Jareth's castle. Instantly the pain of separation from her family hit her. She wondered if her father was worried, if Toby missed her.

_Worried?_ she thought, allowing herself a wry, unhappy smile. _Daddy is probably frantic. He probably has all the police at the station out looking for me. He may even have search parties going. If Toby could only talk... he would tell them what had happened. But it will probably be another year before he talks in full sentences. By then, he probably won't even remember me._

"Oh," Sarah said softly, tears filling her eyes. The idea of being forgotten by her baby brother was new, and hurt worse than a scraped knee. The realization that she would miss Toby growing up made her throat hurt, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

"I'm here forever," she whispered. "Forever. Toby will grow up and he won't remember me. Daddy and Adelle will grow old and d... die. And... and I w-won't be there."

The tears came in earnest then, sliding down her cheeks to drip onto the bedspread. She gave herself a few minutes to weep before sighing, wiping her face, and rising from bed. Her white Renaissance gown, which she had removed to go to bed the night before, was laying over the back of the chair at her vanity table. The smudges of dirt and wrinkles from the day before were gone. The dress was as beautifully pristine white as if it had never been worn before.

"Well, I guess a magick castle would have magick washing machines. Or washing women. Washing goblins." Sarah shrugged, and pulled the dress on. She had a huge wardrobe against one stone wall, but had no desire to go through it. The white dress was all she had left of her old life, and she was unwilling to give it up--not so soon.

After a brief conversation with the door to make sure the castle understood she wanted to go to the dining hall, Sarah went out into the hallway. However, instead of being a hallway, it was a wide open room, somewhat like an indoor courtyard, with large glass windows overhead that showed the dull red of the sky. Directly across from the door of her room was another door, cracked open slightly in invitation.

"I guess I go that way," Sarah murmured. She'd almost grown used to talking to herself now--she was alone so often here in the castle. The sound of her voice helped lessen the ringing silence that always seemed to surround her. Her feet made scarcely any noise in her plain brown loafers as she padded through the open room to the door and passed into a long, straight hallway. At the end of the hallway was an enclosed staircase. As she descended, she noticed she could see the dining hall table through the arched doorway at the bottom of the staircase.

_How odd,_ she thought, crouching a bit to make sure she really did see the table. _Yesterday at breakfast, I would have sworn that there was only one great doorway that led into the dining hall, and no staircases at all. It looks like the exact same table--I recognize the lion's paw feet on the table legs. Well, I guess a magick castle can put staircases anywhere it wants._

Jareth was waiting in the dining room when Sarah appeared. His face looked almost as pale and drawn as hers had in the mirror that morning. He was wearing a simple cream colored poet shirt that morning, and plain black breeches. He stood as she approached, and Sarah looked up into his face, trying to force a smile; Jareth was the only other person in the entire Labyrinth, and she would have to make the best of a bad situation and try to keep her temper with him, despite her misgivings.

"Good morning," Jareth said, his voice soft.

"You have your hair back today," Sarah responded, noticing with a small shock. The long, golden filaments of hair that usually fell over his shoulders had been pulled back into a low tail. He looked surprisingly good like that.

"Yes," Jareth said softly, standing next to his place at the head of the table, waiting. Sarah hesitated, then walked boldly over and sat down at his right hand. Jareth's eyebrows arched faintly at her boldness, then he sat too.

"Jareth, I don't like you," Sarah said, trying to get straight to the point. The air was full of tension, and after a second she realized she could have put her statement more delicately, but she rushed on brazenly. "You tricked me into coming here, and now you're keeping me as a prisoner. But you're the only human around here, and I thought we should try to make the best of it and at least be acquaintances."

"Human?" Jareth repeated, smirking. "You think I'm a human?"

"Oh. Well. What are you then?"

"You don't know?" Jareth's eyes shone at her with a cruel expression, and his smirk grew haughtier.

"Would I have asked if I did?" Sarah replied, annoyed at his toying with her.

"You will soon enough," he responded, gesturing briefly with a hand. Instantly her plate was filled with steaming food. Sarah hesitated, wanting to pursue the conversation, but the scents drifting up to her soon overcame her curiosity, and she set to eating with a single-mindedness Jareth found vaguely amusing. He ate very little, preferring to watch her and sip from an ornate glass filled with a dark liquid.

"Well," Sarah said presently, pushing her plate back with a satisfied sigh. "What are we going to do today?"

"We? Then you want to spend time with me?"

"It's either you or the goblins." Sarah hesitated, then asked carefully, "Unless you could get Hoggle or Ludo or Sir Didymus to visit?"

"I doubt they'd want to," Jareth replied dryly. "Though I could send you to them. I warn you, though, it will be quite a walk, even if I do twist the Labyrinth to shorten it."

"You couldn't just float me there or something? I mean, you have all this magick at your disposal. Wouldn't it be easier to just snap your fingers and make me appear where they are?"

"I could," Jareth said slowly, drawing the words out. "But it would not be pleasant for you. The magick is not made to be used like that, and the experience could drive you mad."

Sarah's eyes widened, and Jareth smiled at her fear. "But... then how did you get Toby here? I'm sure _he_ didn't walk."

"That's different, Sarah. Toby is young."

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked, confused.

"Human minds tend to seize up as they get older, grow strained and atrophied. When they're young, though, they can accept almost anything. Toby could accept being transported magickally from one place to another because he hasn't been alive long enough to know that isn't normal. His mind is still malleable. When he gets older, his mind will begin to atrophy too. Human minds can't handle the abnormal. They tend to crack at the edges, and the odder the occurrence is, the larger the cracks. You were able to accept the Labyrinth because your mind is more willing to accept the odd and unmundane than most peoples'. However, it would not be able to handle transportation. That is why you passed out when I brought you here yesterday--I used my magick to influence the creeping unconsciousness that was trying to claim you. I helped it along. Had you stayed conscious through the transportation, I think you would now be a drooling, cringing, mindless creature. Transportation is completely unlike anything you have ever experienced before. You would most definitely go quite mad."

"Oh. Never mind then. A walk could be pleasant." She hesitated, then spoke slowly, "Are you sure you won't come?"

"You aren't inviting me because you want me to go along, Sarah. You're inviting me because you're kind. I think I'd rather wait for an invitation you mean."

"Then you'll be waiting awhile," Sarah said, unable to resist a jab at him. Jareth's mouth pinched in annoyance, and Sarah rose from the table. "I'd like to go see Hoggle. I'll be back for lunch."

She walked out then, leaving Jareth sitting at the table. He frowned down at his glass for a long moment, then with a guttural sound he lashed out with a hand, smacking the glass solidly, sending it flying across the room to clatter against a stone wall, spilling the dark liquid as it went. He rose, shifting the Labyrinth quickly to give Sarah the easiest possible path. He summoned up a crystal, and stared into it darkly, waiting until Sarah appeared. He stared at her image in the ball with a savage expression on his face, then whispered softly, "I will have you yet." With that said, he settled into his chair to watch her as she navigated his Labyrinth. There were things in the Labyrinth that she would do well not to run into.

_I won't watch her conversation with Hoggle,_ Jareth promised himself, mentally shifting a wall around to shorten Sarah's path even more. _I doubt anything she'd have to say to him about me would be something I'd want to overhear._

  


************

  
The walk was not as hard as Sarah had thought it would be. Her feet were getting used to walking so far and so often, and the pain had receded to a dull ache. She soon found herself standing just outside the wall that circled the Labyrinth. In the distance, she saw a small figure spraying fairies. With a yelp of joy, Sarah dashed forward.

"Hoggle!" she cried. He turned, surprise evident on his small, homely face. As soon as she got to him, she lifted him into an ecstatic hug.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Hoggle cried in his gravelly voice as soon as Sarah put him down. "You were home last night. Ain'tcha still at home? Am I imagining this?"

"No, unfortunately," Sarah said, making a face. "I wish I _were_ still at home but... well, Jareth kidnapped me."

"He did what?!" Hoggle's small body went rigid with fury, and Sarah made a quelling motion with her hands.

"Let's sit down somewhere and talk."

Hoggle led her at a slow limp over to a few large boulders and they seated themselves. Sarah took her own sweet time telling her story, and for once Hoggle proved to be a good listener, hardly interrupting at all. When she finished, Hoggle was frowning, shaking his head. Her scratched his chin, then sighed.

"I wish I knew what to do, but I don't. You know I can't fight Jareth. I never could."

"Of course not," Sarah said kindly, touching the back of one of his hands gently. "I didn't come hoping you would."

"No, I didn't think so." Hoggle shrugged. "This here is Jareth's world, Sarah. He controls it. I'm just one of the things he allows to stay here. He tolerates me. I'm not very loyal, and I'm too big a coward to be of any use. The only things I fights is fairies. Jareth knows that." He paused again, rubbed a hand across his mouth pensively, and sighed. "As I see it, Jareth had every right coming into your home. You did invite him, as much as I wish you hadn't. And he didn't really trick you into coming here."

Sarah made an offended sound, and Hoggle spoke quickly.

"Let me finish! He didn't. He offered you what you wanted, and you accepted. I don't know much about magick, and I ain't that smart, but I do know that acceptance of a magick offer can't be broken. He has you now."

"Don't you have any advice?" Sarah asked, exasperated.

"Only that you should keep your eyes and ears open. Jareth ain't perfect. He's pretty far from it, from what I've seen. Keep watch, and eventually he'll slip up. You just have to be patient until then. I wish I had better advice, Sarah, but I'm just a gate-keeper."

"Oh, Hoggle, that's _wonderful_ advice," Sarah said warmly, leaning to hug him again. "Thank you so much. If you see Didymus or Ludo, please tell them where I am. I'd love if they'd come visit me at the castle--you, too. You're my only friends here, and I need my friends now." Sarah stood, brushing her skirt off. "I have to go now. It took me awhile to get here, and I have to find my way back to the castle before lunch--I told Jareth I'd be back."

Hoggle rose clumsily from his rock, touching the back of her hand gently with his stubby fingers. "You watch yourself, Sarah," he said awkwardly, bushy brows lowering. "Be careful of Jareth. I don't know what he's thinking of doing with you, but I don't think it's good."

"Thank you, Hoggle." Sarah gave him a sweet smile, then turned. The doors to the Labyrinth opened immediately, and Sarah stepped through, turning around to wave to Hoggle before the doors slowly grumbled shut again. Though he wouldn't believe it even if she said so, Hoggle's advice was precious to Sarah. It was wise, and she took it to heart. Jareth _had_ to slip up eventually... and when he did, she would be ready. 


	7. Confessions

**- chapter.7.confessions -**

  
Sarah went directly to her room when she returned to the castle. Seeing Hoggle had lifted her spirits, but the walk through the Labyrinth back to the Goblin City had acted as a weight on her, drawing her back into the depression that had assailed her that morning. She felt she needed a moment alone to try and compose herself before she had to see Jareth again.

_My captor,_ she thought, frowning at her reflection in her vanity mirror. _And, the only other person here._

She grabbed one of the brushes off the table, drawing it through her hair to smooth it from the wind-ruffling that had happened during her walk.

_Except he said he isn't a person. Not human. I'll have to ask him about that at lunch._

When Sarah got to the dining hall, though, it was empty. The table was heaped with different foods, but Jareth was nowhere in sight. Sarah frowned, filled her plate, and ate. It was lonely business, eating by herself in the huge, echoing, shadowy dining hall, and Sarah found herself actually missing Jareth's company.

_He may be a sneaking, lying, cheating rat, and he may be infuriating... but he's the only person in the castle who can even remotely be called my 'friend.'_

It wasn't until dinner that Sarah saw Jareth again. As she walked into the dining hall, she saw him at his usual place at the head of the table, holding yet another elaborate glass filled with a dark liquid.

"I missed you at lunch," Sarah said truthfully, sitting to his right.

"Did you?" His voice was pleased, and he smiled faintly, swirling the liquid in his glass.

"You're the only person in the castle I can talk to, after all. Goblins aren't good for conversation." Sarah paused, and Jareth made a small motion, her plate magickally filling. "Or, the only thing close to a person."

"You're curious about what I am, aren't you?" Jareth raised his glass to his lips, resting the rim on his firm lower lip but not drinking. He watched her like that, the rim of the cup slightly depressing his lip.

"How can I help but be curious?" Sarah replied, digging into her plate. She'd eaten poorly at lunch, made uncomfortable by the hissing silence around her. Finding herself with company at supper, she found she was starving.

"I am the thing you fear the most," Jareth said enigmatically, sipping his drink finally.

"Oh, a math quiz. Funny--you don't look much like a math quiz."

Jareth's eyebrows drew down over his eyes, but the corners of his mouth twitched, trying to hold in a smile. "Sarah."

"All right, I'll be serious."

"I am every nightmare you've ever had. I am that thing that you run from, but can never escape. I am the ultimate hunter, the best player in the game of life."

'The boardgame?' Sarah wondered absently, chewing, listening to Jareth's musical voice--which sounded a little sad and... lonely.

"I've been alive for longer than you can ever know, Sarah. And before I saw you, I lived a life..." Jareth paused, as if searching for the right words. Sarah shoveled another forkful of food into her mouth, trying to divide her attention between Jareth and the food before her. "A life unsavory."

"Oh," Sarah said, beginning to lose interest. She enjoyed theatrics, but Jareth was taking it too far.

"I see you're losing interest," Jareth said, his face emotionless. "A confession might bring you back to yourself. Before I saw you, so young and innocent, I was the very worst creature. I killed not just for pleasure, but out of boredom. The Labyrinth has been around since before I was brought into existence. It took years before it accepted me as an equal, and when it did, it helped me in my pastimes. Often, the people who came into the Labyrinth searching for their wished-away children got no further than the first turn in the path. I killed them easily, without remorse, using creatures I created by twisting and manipulating the magick Underground hundreds of years ago. Occasionally, I would take a particular fancy to a young girl, and allow her to get all the way to my castle. Once she reached my front gate, though, I would strike her down." He paused, eyes dark. "Very few people who ran the Labyrinth in the beginning escaped alive."

Sarah's food had grown cold before her as she listened. She was aware that her mouth was hanging slightly open, but couldn't seem to draw herself together to shut it. She had known Jareth was bad... but she hadn't imagined this. She had thought trickery and lying were the extent of his wickedness. But murder?

"As time went on, I became bored with the killing, but I did not stop. I began breaking the rules of the Labyrinth, evicting those who were working their way through it before their time was up, or else trapping them with an inescapable doom. Too many times, I twisted the Labyrinth, forcing my victims into the paths reserved for the Aljunnu. I let one or two escape, of course... but at a great price, much greater than the lives of the children they were seeking."

"Aljunnu? Isn't that another word for a genie?" Sarah asked, her food completely forgotten.

"Yes. An ancient, powerful word which, I think, was inspired by me." Jareth smirked faintly, obviously proud of being the inspiration for a word. "Those few that escaped with their lives had heard me say the word 'Aljunnu,' and told their painful tales to those around them. Eventually, the meaning got twisted into a creature that grants wishes. Of course, before the word became the weak 'genie' it is today, it was understood that the wish the Aljunnu would grant would not be a wish most people would want granted. But, with time, things become twisted and confused. Eventually, 'aljunnu' became 'genie,' and people believed they would be granted three wishes."

"What are the Aljunnu, then?" Sarah asked, truly curious.

"They are... monsters." Jareth raised a gloved hand, stopping her questions before she could even begin them. "I don't want to describe them any further, Sarah. Just understand that there are still paths in the Labyrinth you should not walk on."

"Okay," Sarah said, resting her elbows on either side of her plate, cupping her chin in her palm. "You were a murderer, and you created monsters. Then you met me."

"Yes," Jareth agreed, "then I met you."

"And?" Sarah prompted.

"When I saw you... you were shining in the sunlight, like an elf. You seemed to be full of sunlight, as if it were glowing through you. You were like light, and I felt the first dark shadows in me weakening and disappearing. I knew I had to have you then."

"To ruin me? To make me as dark as you?"

"No, Sarah. To cherish you. The sight of you warms me. It makes me... want to erase my past."

"I make you want to be a better man?" Sarah asked, smirking, repeating lines she'd heard only too many times in romance novels and romantic movies.

"More than that," Jareth disagreed, leaning toward her slightly, his eyes intense and focused. "You make me want to be a _man_."

Sarah felt a chill run through her body, and she leaned back into her chair, away from him. "What do you mean?"

"You make me want to be human, Sarah. I'm not. I never will be. It isn't possible."

"You never told me what you are," Sarah said softly, feeling a sudden wild trembling in the pit of her stomach. She was suddenly afraid, not sure she _did_ want to know what he was.

"Some would call me Fae, which is not far off. I have a bit of the Royal Blood of the faeries, elves and magickal creatures in me. But more than that, I am a demon." Jareth smirked then, his smile brittle, more a grimace than a smile. "I am cruel because I am half demon, Sarah."

Sarah sucked in a breath as if to say, 'I knew it!' but said nothing, her gray eyes gone huge.

"Even the term 'demon' doesn't really describe what I am. I come from a people who live to make mischief. When people vanish without a trace, that is us. When people lose passages of time, that is us. We are a wild card, thrown in to keep things in a constant state of flux. We step in, mix things up, then leave. We kill people, we destroy lives, and we create confusion where there was clarity." Jareth paused, tossing her an arch glance. "I am actually the nicest of my people. It's the Fae blood in me."

Sarah could think of nothing to say, so she nodded politely. Her mind was trying to grasp the concept that Jareth was a demon.

_A demon fae,_ she thought wildly. _A red monster with horns, a tail, and pretty butterfly wings._

"I can tell you're thinking ridiculous things, Sarah. You have that look on your face." Jareth's voice was tender, and Sarah suddenly realized his gloved fingertips were touching the back of her hand. She stared at his fingertips resting lightly as a kitten's patting paw on the back of her hand, then looked up into Jareth's eyes.

"Like Beauty and the Beast," she said suddenly, causing Jareth to frown.

"What?"

"The Beast fell in love with Beauty because she was beautiful and kind, and he hoped she would love him someday, and rescue him from his curse."

"I'm under no curse, Sarah."

"No, I know that. It was just what came to my mind. Besides, the Beast took Beauty because he fell in love with her; you don't love me."

The silence after her statement stretched on and on, and Sarah felt her heart slowly beginning to pound. Jareth just stared at her, his proud face unreadable.

_Why doesn't he say something?_ she thought wildly. _Why doesn't he agree?_

"Sarah... you think I don't love you?" Jareth's voice was soft, the words warm and gentle. The fingertips on her hand moved gently, lovingly, stroking the soft skin just behind her knuckles. Sarah found she suddenly couldn't speak, couldn't even think. She stared at him, her eyes huge and innocent, like a young fawn surprised in the woods by a human. Her throat constricted suddenly, and she gave a weak little hiccoughing gasp.

"You can't," she whispered, unable to move. "I'm nothing. I'm just a wimpy little human. I'm not talented or beautiful or brave or very intelligent--"

"You are," he contradicted softly, still stroking the back of her hand.

"And you're so powerful," she continued, as if she hadn't heard. "You have a kingdom and magick and--"

"And I'm lonely," Jareth said softly, moving his hand to encircle hers, lacing his gloved fingers through her own trembling, bare fingers.

"Then why not kidnap a princess? Or... or a poet, or an artist, or a scientist. Someone with power or intelligence or a talent for something _other_ than screwing things up?"

"I don't want a poet, or an artist, or a scientist. And I have a princess." His hand squeezed hers gently. "You."

Sarah jerked her hand away then, breathing hard. "I can't love you, Jareth. You kidnapped Toby. You cheated me, and almost made me lose. You lied and you tormented me. I can't love you when you've... you've made me _hate_ you! You're a monster!" She rose with the last word, stumbling away from the dining table. Jareth rose too, stretching one hand out toward her departing figure.

"Sarah!" The word was spoken with longing, but Sarah did not turn. She left the dining hall, practically running from him. Jareth settled himself in his chair again, steepling his fingers under his chin. "A monster, am I? Even the Beauty learned to love her Beast."

  
**

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**

  
Sarah was in such a hurry to get to her room, she forgot to whisper instructions to the castle, a habit she'd formed. After rushing blindly up a winding stair and down a twisting hall, Sarah found herself at her own bedroom door.

_Oh,_ she thought, staring at the familiar carvings on the strong, dark wood. _I guess I don't actually have to _tell_ the castle where I want to go. Maybe I'll keep doing it, though--it's nice to hear a voice sometimes._ She pushed the door open, then shut it behind her and leaned her back against it in a totally ridiculous motion of trying to keep the door shut. _If Jareth wants in,_ Sarah thought, palms pressing against the door at hip-level, _I doubt my leaning on the door would stop him._ She sighed, stepping back from the door, gazing at it almost reproachfully as if it were a serving maid. "You could have told me he loved me," she said to the door, only half meaning it. The door gave a tremble, not like someone was rattling it, but the way a horse shivers its flank when a biting fly lands on it, a rippling that crossed and recrossed the solid oak as if the door were sentient, and understood her. Sarah had the sudden feeling that the door was ashamed of itself, and trying to show her it were sorry. "I didn't mean it," she said quickly, and the door stopped trembling.

_I'll have to remember I'm in a magickal castle,_ she thought, going over to her vanity table and sitting down. _And I'll have to try not to make ridiculous requests of doors._

She gazed at her face in the mirror, and was startled to see that her cheeks were flushed and her eyes had a shine to them she only saw when she was completely happy. Instantly, she tried to force a grave expression on her face, but her cheeks just flushed all the merrier.

"My God," she whispered to her reflection. "How can he love me? I'm so... so _nothing_. And I can't love him." Her dark brows drew in, and a frown pinched her face. "I just can't. And he knows that now. Maybe... maybe he'll just let me go." A smirk twitched at one corner of her mouth. "Well, no, of course Jareth wouldn't give up. But at least now he _does_ know. Maybe in time he'll find someone else to be infatuated with, and he can let me go without feeling like he was giving up." 

Sarah could see in the mirror that behind her, the bed sheets were turning themselves back, and Sarah half expected to see a lady's maid waiting next to the bed to help her undress. 

"All right," she said, rising from the vanity and dragging her Renaissance dress off. She walked over to the bed, crawling into the sheets and pulling them up. "I just have to be patient. Jareth will give up eventually... and then I can go home. Oh, home..." A longing filled Sarah, and she repeated the word softly over and over until she finally drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	8. Hidden Garden

**- chapter.8.hidden.garden -**

  
Sarah woke early the next morning, yawning and stretching as the first sallow red light of the day crept into her room from the window. Once again, her white Renaissance dress was cleaned as perfectly as if it had never been worn. Even the bit of fraying on the hem of the skirt was mended.

"Thank you," Sarah said softly to the listening air around her, and pulled the dress on. She moved over to her vanity, a new spring in her step. She felt sure now that Jareth would not keep her forever. He would eventually grow tired of pursuing her, since she would never love him, and move on to some other girl. Until then, Sarah just had to be patient.

As Sarah tripped nimbly and lightly down the stairs at the end of a long corridor that morning, heading toward to dining hall, she realized she was practically skipping. Her feet flew as they moved over the steps, her loafers making soft "tut-tut-tut" sounds on the stone steps. She was noticing things so much better today, seeing their beauty in a way she hadn't the last two days. Knowing that she would go home perhaps in only a few months made Sarah's spirits rise to an almost ridiculous level. 

_I can pretend I'm just staying at a boarding school or something. Ten months of boarding school, and I'm home again._ The thought was silly, but it gave Sarah hope. If she could just cling to the idea of ten months spent in the castle, then she could believe it would end, and she could return home to her family.

Her thoughts were so buoyant when she walked into the dining hall that she was actually willing to be friendly with Jareth.

_After all, if he's not keeping me forever, I don't _really_ have a reason to hate him. He _did_ take Toby because I asked, and he _did_ bring me here because I asked. I should thank him, and be his friend. He means well, even if he is misguided. I hope he'll do better with his new girl, whoever she is._ Sarah had fixated on the idea of Jareth falling in love with someone else so strongly that she believed it to be a certainty now.

"Good morning, Jareth," Sarah said cheerfully, seating herself to his right again, the two of them forming a right angle of the head of the table. 

"Good morning," Jareth's voice was subdued and careful, and he was watching her face curiously. Sarah gave him a huge smile.

"I'm starving. Can you start serving breakfast? I promise, we can talk all you want later, but right now, I could eat your gloves!"

Jareth's sharp eyebrows shot up into the feathering of blond hair over his forehead, and for a second he seemed at a loss for what to say. Then, after a moment of staring at Sarah, he waved a hand, murmuring a word or two, and her plate was instantly filled. Sarah set to eating hungrily. She felt as if she'd gotten her appetite back and then some. She'd worried that she'd lost it completely when Jareth had kidnapped her, but now she found herself eating seconds of very large first helpings.

"You seem to be in a good temper today," Jareth said carefully, his rich voice hesitant.

"Oh, yes, I am," Sarah said, taking another bite of a small wedge of a delicious berry pie.

"You almost seem... contented to staying here."

"Of course," Sarah said, keeping her own private musings to herself. She didn't want to offend Jareth, or force him to find a new girl immediately. As flighty as he'd seemed to her while she was running the Labyrinth, she had no doubt that he would eventually--given time--find a suitable replacement for her.

"Ah," Jareth said, allowing himself a small, hopeful smile. He settled back in his huge chair, steepling his fingers below his strong chin. "Do you plan to visit Hoggle again today?"

"Actually, I thought I might spend the day with you," Sarah said, and licked her lips, removing a thin coating of the sweet pie-filling from them. "Here." She took a forkful of the pie, then stood, holding a hand under the fork and moving over to Jareth. "You have to try this; it's amazing."

"I, uh..." Jareth hesitated, leaning further back in his chair as if to avoid her.

"No, really, it's delicious." Then, as a thick drop of berry-juice dripped into her palm, "Quick, before the entire thing ends up in my hand." Without waiting for him to comply, Sarah leaned forward, popping the fork into his half-open mouth. After a startled moment, he closed his lips on the fork, and Sarah carefully drew it out, and licked her palm clean as Jareth chewed, looking up at her with open confusion in his eyes.

"Isn't it great?" Sarah asked, standing and watching him chew.

"Very," Jareth replied after swallowing. Sarah smiled and nodded, content, and went back to sit down in her chair.

"I was thinking that we shouldn't be at odds," Sarah said, twirling the tines of her fork in a slurpy mess of berries and juice on her plate. "I'm going to be here awhile, and we should try to be friends."

"Yes?" Jareth said, watching her with a slow-dawning hope in his face.

"So, today I'd like to spend some time with you. Show me the sights. Take me around the castle and the grounds. Give me the grand tour!" She made a magnificent gesture with the hand holding her fork to emphasize her point and only succeeded in splattering Jareth's face with berry juice.

"Ah, well," Jareth said, looking at her from under a thin coating of red juice.

"Damn," Sarah muttered, grabbing her napkin and hopping out of her chair, her face going as red as the juice on Jareth's cheeks and nose. "Sorry about that." She bent down, carefully using a corner of the napkin to wipe the juice from Jareth's nose, feeling almost as if she were cleaning Toby after an evening meal.

"Sarah," Jareth began, but she cut him off quickly by pressing the napkin to his lips.

"Hush. Talking makes food run down your face. I know. When Toby covers himself in macaroni and cheese and then tries to babble to me, it ends up everywhere." Jareth shut his mouth, and Sarah finished wiping his face, then stood back, arms crossed, to assess him.

"Better?" Jareth asked, his tone vaguely scandalized. His expression was so hang-dog, Sarah had to laugh, and actually went so far as to knock him lightly on his shoulder with her fist.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't that bad." She returned her napkin to her place at the table, laughing under her breath. She missed Jareth's whispered, "No, it wasn't."

"So, what should we do first?" Sarah asked, turning away from her plate to smile at Jareth. He rose slowly from his own chair, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 

"I think it ought to be up to you to decide," Jareth said after a moment.

"But I've seen practically nothing!" Sarah objected, rising to stand next to him. 

"That's all right."

"What if I ask to see a grand ballroom, and you haven't got one?"

"I have one."

"Oh. What about a huge garden?"

"Yes, that is on the grounds, too."

"A library?"

"Yes."

"Video game room?"

"Now you're being impetuous."

"I know," Sarah laughed, looping her arm through his--none of that polite, fingers-on-the-elbow stuff today. "Why don't you take me to one of your favorite places?"

Jareth considered, his eyes straying to their interlocked arms, then smiled. "All right. Let's be off."

The walk was pleasant. Morning had arrived in the Underground in earnest now, and the sky was a dull, marbleized red with wispy orange clouds drifting lazily over it. Sarah caught glimpses through the windows as they walked. Huge, double-windows in long corridors showed the ruby-bright sky looming over the intricate Labyrinth. Tiny, decorative windows in stairwells showed peeks of orange clouds meandering across the sky. 

_It's like playing a game of hide-and-seek,_ Sarah thought as she glanced out a huge window in a hallway decorated with tapestries. _Each window I look out of, I try and find the same things I've just seen._

"You're smiling again," Jareth observed quietly, glancing down at her.

"I'm enjoying playing hide-and-seek with the clouds," Sarah said, and laughed at herself cheerfully. Jareth glanced out the window in time to catch a cloud taking advantage of her distraction to quickly change its shape.

"I think the clouds are enjoying it, too," Jareth replied dryly.

"You mean they... know?" Sarah asked, glancing out the window again sharply.

"Of all the worlds, Sarah, this one has the most sentient magick in it. It infuses everything, making it intelligent beyond what they would otherwise be, and giving them just a little bit of their own magick."

"Whew," Sarah muttered. "Everything?"

"Well," Jareth amended, "almost everything. The goblins have never been anything but goblins, and I doubt any amount of magick would change that. I'm sure by now you've notice everything else responding to you in a most unmundane way, though?"

Sarah thought of her trembling door, her bed sheets turning themselves back, and the candles that lit themselves her first night in the castle, and smiled. "I've noticed a few things."

"Even your dress is becoming infused with the magick."

Sarah looked down at her simple Renaissance gown with alarm, then back up at Jareth.

"Yes, it is becoming magickal too, Sarah."

"I noticed it always seemed clean in the mornings, after I'd taken it off to sleep."

"It cleans itself. It likes you--even I can see that. Because it likes you, it wants to look its best for you. Soon, it will begin mending itself should you tear it, the threads reforming and reconnecting. Before long, you'll find that you can't dirty it, even if you roll in mud, and you can't tear it beyond its own ability to repair itself."

"That would save a lot of time on Earth," Sarah said, thinking of the many nights she'd stayed up late scrubbing at a persistent grass stain on the skirt of the dress with bleach and water.

"I imagine it would," Jareth replied, smiling, then gently removed his arm from hers. "We're here. I'd like to present my garden to you, Sarah."

Sarah's breath caught as she looked away from Jareth's strong, handsome face to the garden he indicated with a grandiose wave of his hand.

When Jareth had said 'garden,' Sarah had pictured a neatly manicured lawn with rows of nice flowers. If she took that original mental image and multiplied it by a thousand, she'd still only have a fraction of what was before her. The manicured lawn was there, but it rolled for hundreds and hundreds of feet in every direction, stopping at the doorway she and Jareth now stood in. There were flowers, but none like Sarah had ever seen on Earth. These flowers were of colors she wouldn't have been able to describe even if she tried. Some of them were a blue so shining and electric, they made her squint. The pink flowers were a shimmering, ethereal color, like the soft blush over an angel's cheek. The purple flowers were so purple that they were almost ultra-violet. And in the distance, Sarah could see huge orchards and large vegetable and herb gardens. She was so over-whelmed that she actually stumbled back a step, and Jareth had to put out a hand and catch her gently on her lower back to keep her from falling.

"I should have warned you," Jareth said mildly. "It is a bit much to take in if you've never seen it before."

Sarah was moving forward then, crouching next to the closest flower--a yellow so brilliant it reminded her of the early-morning sun. She reached out a trembling finger to touch a petal, almost expecting to be burned. Instead, the petal was cool and soft beneath her finger, like any flower-petal on Earth but more so, a softness like lamb's ears and silk and velvet all rolled into one.

"If you'd like, you can water some of the plants. It's the easiest way to make friends," Jareth offered, and showed her a small watering can. "It contends to keep itself full permanently. I've watered the entire garden twice over before, and the can was still full as the end of the day."

Sarah lifted the watering can gently, and began watering the yellow flowers nearest her, speaking to Jareth as she did so. "I couldn't really picture you having a garden. You just don't seem like the type to have flowers and trees or anything tender and growing that needs to be cared after."

"You don't know me very well," Jareth replied, watching her watering. "I'm not only a demon. I'm also half-Fae. Many Fae are very fond of growing things."

"Of course," Sarah said, smiling over her shoulder at him. 

They were quiet for some hours then, Sarah slowly wandering through the garden, watering the plants that caught her eye, Jareth watching her silently. When Sarah finally put down the watering can, her stomach let loose a loud, bawdy complaint.

"Sorry," Sarah muttered, flushing. "How long have we been out here?"

"Long enough," Jareth replied, offering her his arm. "It must be nearly lunch time now. The table is probably already set."

"Already?" Sarah repeated. "I always... I always thought that you set it. You know, wave your arm, the plates and silverware and food appear."

"No, the table sets itself."

"But you always have the same thing to drink. Does the table always give that to you?"

"Yes, always. It is a potent drink. With it, I need not eat or drink anything else at a meal."

"Then why is there always so much food? There had to be enough at every meal to feed a small country, and then some left over for an island or two."

"The castle enjoys trying to tempt me with different dishes. I rather think it likes having you here to ply with food now. I always stick to my drink."

"You shouldn't," Sarah said earnestly. "Some of the food is very good."

"Yes, but I didn't enjoy meals before. They stretched forever, with no company and no distraction from the silent sound of my eating. I began to drink to balais to shorten the time I spent in the dining hall alone. But that was before."

"Before what?" Sarah asked, not realizing she was stepping onto dangerous terrain.

"Before you came, Sarah. You chase away the silence in the dining hall, you make the entire castle thrum with life."

"It still seems pretty silent to me," Sarah said, wishing he'd be quiet on the subject of how wonderfully she'd transformed the castle. It made her wonder if he actually meant to let her leave eventually. 

"You haven't been here for hundreds of years, listening to the resounding echoes of sounds that aren't even there."

"Sounds like fun," Sarah muttered, then quickly changed the topic. "Why don't you eat something with me at lunch?"

"Like what?" Jareth asked, eyebrows raising slightly.

"We'll decide that when we see what the castle has decided to serve us today," Sarah replied. "Let's go, Jareth. This will be good for you."

You_ are good for me,_ Jareth thought, but merely smiled back at Sarah's bright smile before she dragged him into the castle.


	9. Flight from Pain

**- chapter.9.flight.from.pain - **

  
_I could almost get used to this,_ Sarah thought languidly the next morning. Lunch had gone well the day before, and after lunch Jareth had left her alone so that she could visit Sir Didymus. She'd been as charmed as ever by his dear manners, although Ambrosius had made her long for her own English sheep dog, Merlin. 

Sarah forced that thought out of her mind and tried to return to the languid, relaxed feelings she'd been enjoying only moments before. Unfortunately, she could not bring herself into the same mood, and sighed, opening her eyes and sitting up, water sluicing down her back. She was in the huge bath that sat in a tidy watercloset just off of her room--a watercloset she'd noticed that morning when wishing for one. She'd decided on taking a calming bath before she went down for breakfast that morning, and when she searched her room, she'd found the watercloset tucked against the far wall, which was usually dark with shadows, which made it understandable how she'd missed seeing the door before. It had been several days since her last shower back on Earth, and Sarah was convinced she was become offensive, even if Jareth never said anything.

_Of course, living around goblins all the time would ruin anyone's sense of smell,_ Sarah thought wryly, and gave herself one last scrubbing with the bar of floral scented soap that rested next to the tub. She stood, up-ending a large jug of warm water over her head to wash the remaining soap off of herself, then grabbed a huge towel from a chair near the bath, wrapping it around herself.

_The castle seems to be over-compensating sometimes,_ Sarah thought as she walked from the watercloset. _The bathtub is the size of a Jacuzzi, and the towels are big enough to be blankets._ Her eyes strayed to her vanity table, and she grinned. _And I have twenty-seven different brushes and combs when all I really need is one brush and one good, sturdy comb. I wonder why it does that? Is it trying to impress me?_

"You could impress me much more by sending a unicorn trotting through my room, followed by a trail of golden mice carrying magick rings in their mouths," Sarah said, smirking at her reflection in the mirror. In the watercloset, she heard a sibilance very much like the sound of horse hooves and mice. "Oh! No, I didn't mean that! I was being sarcastic!" Immediately the noise ceased, and Sarah heaved a sigh of relief, wondering what she would have done had a unicorn and several thousand mice come trotting into her bedroom while she stood in a huge bath towel.

_I probably would have embarrassed myself by running screaming through the castle in nothing but a towel. _That_ would probably give Jareth a good laugh. He could certainly use one._ Sarah frowned, toweling her hair viciously. Jareth always seemed so unhappy and moody around her. She could understand him being upset at her unwillingness to stay, but she'd never told him she _wouldn't_ stay. Since she'd made up her mind to wait for his attention to drift, she'd been nothing but good-natured. She hadn't said a single cross word to him all day yesterday, and there had been times she'd most definitely wanted to.

"_I'm_ the only one who should be upset around here," Sarah grumbled, slipping into the underwear she'd worn for the last four days, ever since she'd been transported to the Labyrinth. Like her dress, the undergarments stayed perfectly clean and serviceable, as if they'd never been worn.

"And where _is_ my dress?" Sarah said suddenly, turning around, her damp hair sliding over her back like a cool, dark cape. Her dress was not resting demurely over the back of her chair, like it always did. Instead, a completely ridiculous maroon gown was in its place. It had an immodestly low bodice, and there was a crusting of rubies over the waist. As if aware of her attention, the dress made a little flurry of motion, as if a breeze had half-lifted it from the chair before resettling it. Strangely enough, the motion seemed a little pompas, as if the dress was aware of how beautifully made it was.

"No. No, I am _not_ wearing that. Look at the collar! What would Jareth think?" Sarah backed away from the dress, as if it meant her harm. "He'd think I was trying to seduce him. No. I want _my_ dress back, and I want it back now. I'm going to turn my back, and when I turn back around, _that_ will be gone and _my_ dress will be back." Sarah turned, shut her eyes for a moment, then turned back to face the chair before her vanity. The maroon dress was still there, but now her loafers were missing, and dainty maroon shoes with rubies encrusting them shone in their place.

"Okay, this is getting totally ridiculous. I want my dress back. Really. This is insulting. I am _not_ going to wear that." Once again, she turned her back. She stared at the far wall for a count of sixty, humming in case the magick didn't want her to hear it at work. When she turned again, the dress and shoes remained. They trembled as she looked at them, like a nervous lapdog. Sarah's nostrils flared, then suddenly she caught sight of herself in the vanity mirror.

"_That is enough!_" The words were a furious shout, and as she shouted she raised her hands to grab at her hair. While she had been counting, the wet hair had been stealthily lifted off her back and done up in an impressive twist with ruby-covered clips and pins. She jerked at the pins and clips, scattering them around her room. To her annoyance, they skittered across the floor toward her as soon as they touched down, and waited around her feet patiently.

"Okay, fine! You want to be like that?" Sarah was shouting at the ceiling now, for lack of a better place to aim her fury. "Fine! Then I'm not leaving!" With that said, she 'humphed' down onto her bed, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms tightly around her knees. She stayed like that for an unknown amount of time, glaring at the dress, shoes and hairpins angrily, waiting for them to take themselves back to the wardrobe--which is where she was sure they had come from--and bring her own dress and loafers back again. 

Finally, as Sarah's stomach began to rumble impatiently for breakfast, she heard a knock at her door.

"Sarah?" His voice was muffled, but Sarah could clearly hear the confusion in Jareth's voice just the same. "Are you awake?"

"Yes, I'm awake," she called back, keeping her eyes locked on the ridiculous clothing in case the hairpins should try to sneak into her hair again.

"Are you all right?" There was alarm in his voice now, and the door opened fractionally.

"I'm fine. I'm just _angry_."

The door opened further, and Jareth peeked in carefully, not quite able to see her. "Did I do something?"

"No, it's not you," Sarah said, sighing and lifting her head from her knees, still keeping them locked to her chest with her arms.

"Oh." The door opened further and Jareth stepped in, then froze. He stared at her a long moment, then cleared his throat, took a step outside her room, speaking from the hallway. "What is it, then?"

"They took my dress and they won't give it _back!_"

"They?"

"_They!_" Sarah repeated, stomping over to her vanity and grabbing the maroon dress. She flung it out the open door into the hallway, then realized that somehow the ridiculous slippers had snuck onto her feet. She stood on one foot, snatched a shoe off, and flung it out her door. The other followed a moment later, clattering loudly against the wall. "The dress and shoes and a million stupid, _stupid_ hairpins!"

"Oh." There was a pause, then Jareth spoke carefully. "It's a well-made dress."

"It's not _my_ dress."

Another pause. "The color would look good on you."

"It's _not_. _My_. _Dress_."

Another pause, longer. Finally, Jareth muttered something below his breath. Instantly, the wardrobe doors flung themselves open and her own white dress and plain brown loafers came fluttering across the room to land neatly on the bed beside her. Sarah jerked the dress over her head quickly, then slipped her feet into the loafers. Satisfied, she stepped out into the hall. Jareth still held the maroon gown in his arms like a broken dove, and the shoes had tumbled in an ungainly heap outside her door. Sarah gave the shoes a spiteful little kick, then sighed.

"Sorry. It's just... well, my dress is all I have left of home. I'm not ready to give it up yet." Then, without giving him a chance to reply, Sarah snatched the dress and tossed it onto the stones next to the shoes. "Ready for breakfast?"

Jareth glanced almost apologetically at the dress and shoes, then extended his arm for Sarah to catch. She did, and they headed for the dining hall.

Breakfast was relaxingly without incident after the fight with the dress, and Sarah ate happily, slowly relaxing. The food, as always, was delicious and in amounts far too huge for her to consume. As always, Jareth sat at the head of the table, sipping the dark balais from his elaborately carved goblet. As Sarah slowly finished the last few lingering bites of a dark, meaty porridge, she sighed and sat back.

"How can you not eat this?" Sarah said, gesturing at the table. "There are so _many_ things... and I always want to try them all, but seem to run out of room at every meal before I can."

"I've just gotten used to drinking the balais only," Jareth responded softly, his voice warm and soothing, like a loving hand stroked over the back of a purring cat.

"I'm curious about that, too," Sarah said, pushing her chair back and rising. She went over and crouched next to Jareth, her chin on level with the arm of his chair. "May I have a taste?"

There was a pause, then slowly Jareth turned toward her and lowered the goblet, pressing the rim to her lips. He tilted the cup, and Sarah took a slow sip. Her eyes widened, and he took the glass back quickly.

"You don't like it?" he asked, brows raising.

"No! No, it's..." Sarah stopped, struggling for a description. It was warm, like a delicious cup of tea on a chilly, rainy evening, but also cooling, like a tall glass of lemonade and ice on a hot summer afternoon. It was sweeter than the smell of roses in the spring, but also biting like a sour candy. It tasted like a breeze felt on a still, muggy evening, and had the bite of the first snowstorm in winter. "It's... wow." 

Jareth smirked, putting the glass down. "Yes, that was my reaction the first time I tried it, too. Ah, no, one sip is enough," he said, as she stood and reached for the glass. "You've eaten a full meal. Too much balais will make you sick after that much food."

"But it's just a drink," Sarah said stubbornly, pouting faintly.

"You know it's not," Jareth responded, his lips tightening slightly. "It's a full meal to itself. You'll cause yourself to get truly sick if you keep insisting on it. I know--I made myself sick more than once when I first began drinking the balais. It is a magick unto itself, Sarah. I cannot control the magick of the balais in myself, let alone in you." When Sarah continued to pout and frown at him like a spoiled child, he rose from his chair slowly, returning her frown. "Sarah, you will have to learn the rules of the magick here. This is your home now."

"Not forever," Sarah responded suddenly, not meaning to say it out loud.

"Yes, Sarah, forever." Jareth's voice was becoming stern, the words clipped and sharp. "You made a bargain with the magick, and you cannot break that now. It is not like a dress you can send away, Sarah, or a path you can twist to your own liking."

"You can't keep me here forever!" Sarah snapped, her face flushing, her tone flaring to match Jareth's. "Eventually, you'll have to send me home! _Home_, to my family!"

"This. _Is_. Your. Home." Jareth's beautiful face had gone deadly white in his fury, and his mismatched eyes glittered brightly.

"No, it _isn't!_" Sarah snapped, and spun to leave.

"Sarah. You are not leaving."

"I _am_ leaving. Maybe not the Underground--not yet. But I _am_ leaving this dining hall, and I am leaving your company!" She strode away, heading purposefully toward the arched doorway.

"We aren't finished," Jareth replied, moving after her.

"_Yes, we are!_" Sarah shouted, spinning to face him, flinging to words at him with a fury she wished she could inflict physically. As her shout echoed in the huge dining hall, a chair tipped directly into Jareth's path, causing him to stumble. 

_Did I do that?_ Sarah wondered dazedly as Jareth regained his balance.

"That was cruel, Sarah, and I wouldn't do that again if I were you." Jareth's voice was calm, but a faint flush was moving up his throat, betraying his anger.

"Oh, no?" Sarah replied, concentrating on the chair nearest him. The chair jiggled uncertainly, then scooted back an inch, then flung itself onto the floor next to its mate.

"_Sarah!_" It was a roar, and Sarah spun, rushing away. She heard Jareth's footsteps pursuing, and she took off running full speed, her loafered feet slapping the stones as she ran for the front door.

"Leave me alone, Jareth! I don't want to see you right now!" The front doors burst open as if shoved by some great beast, and Sarah rushed through.

_The Labyrinth,_ she thought. _I'll wander the Labyrinth until I can calm down._

"Sarah!" His voice was fading behind her. He could catch her easily, and Sarah knew it. Wisely, he was choosing to let her go. 

_Good,_ Sarah thought furiously, flinging herself through an opening into the winding Labyrinth. _I don't want to see him. I hate him. I _hate_ him!_


	10. Satan's Playground

**- chapter.10.satan's.playground - **

  
Sarah had thought walking the pathways of the Labyrinth that were becoming comfortingly familiar would calm her. Instead, every step she took seemed to push her anger a little higher.

"That jerk," she whispered, walking quickly, flinging herself around corners and twists in the path without a single care for her safety. "He _can't_ keep me here. He _can't_. I hate him. I _hate him!_"

She lashed out at a wall, smacking it solidly with her palm, receiving a few scratches from loose stones for her trouble. She hissed in an angry breath and looked down at her reddening palm, her temper flaring higher. Ridiculously, she blamed Jareth for her palm being scratched.

"If he took better care of this Labyrinth, I wouldn't have scratched myself," she muttered savagely. "If he hadn't tried to control me, I wouldn't be so angry. If he hadn't brought me here, I wouldn't be so miserable." Suddenly, a tear trickled down her cheek. She reached up and brushed it away furiously. She _was_ miserable. At that moment, she would have given anything to be anywhere else.

"I want to go home," she whispered, her throat aching. "I hate this. I hate being a prisoner. I hate fighting with my clothes. I hate it here. I wish I were anywhere else, even dead." Then, louder, screaming it at the Labyrinth, "I wish I were dead!"

She sniffled weakly, then turned to go back the way she'd come. 

"What...? No!" Sarah glared at the wall behind her. "That wasn't there. I just came from... damn this place." She spun to face the direction she had been going, but the long path was now gone, and a sharp bend led to her left. "I hate you," she whispered savagely to the Labyrinth, then flung herself into the bend. She pulled up short with a weak gasp. Ahead of her, much further down the way, a huge shape was blocking the path. She could make out no details from where she stood, but a feeling of malignancy surrounded it. It gave a slow, languid movement, and Sarah felt her nostrils widening in disgust as she caught a whiff of foul air. It smelled awful, like something dead and rotting. It reminded her of the uncooked meat that had spoiled in the very back of the refrigerator when the power went off for a week and Adelle had forgotten to get everything out of the 'fridge. It was pungent and disgusting, and it made her breakfast crowd into her throat.

"What... is it?" she whispered to herself, not meaning to speak aloud. Almost as if it had heard her, the creature gave a jerk, then slowly raised its head--or at least, that's what she thought it was. It didn't look like a head at all, but like a misshapen lump of clay. It appeared to have eyes, but they were multi-faceted, like a spider's eyes, and set into the head in a way that didn't make sense. One was in the center of the head, where a nose would be on a person, another was near where an ear should be, and another was dangling uselessly from the chin. No, not uselessly--even as she stared, the thin tendril the eye trailed from twisted and writhed, lifting the eye slowly to look at her.

_Oh, God,_ she thought, frozen and trembling. _I have to get away. If I don't get away, I'll go mad before it kills me. I can't look at this thing and not go mad._ And she had no doubt that it _would_ kill her. This thing was not a nice beast like Ludo; it was cruel, malicious, and evil in ways Jareth could never match with his sharp words and cheating tricks.

Slowly, the thing turned toward her, it's huge bulk seeming to drift like shadows. It took a lumbering step toward her, and Sarah felt the fear that had frozen her to the spot break, and she turned to run back around the corner. But the corner was gone. The path seemed to stretch forever behind her, drifting into a haze at the end, like her first glimpse inside the gates of the Labyrinth.

_I'm trapped,_ she thought, trembling. _I'm trapped with this horrible thing!_

Behind her, she heard the scrape of a heavy foot on the stones of the path, and she spun to face the creature. For something so huge and misshapen, it moved quickly. Already, it had closed half the distance between them. 

Sarah ran.

She knew she couldn't really get away from the thing. She would just go on and on and eventually she would tire, and it would catch her. No one could run forever, and she couldn't expect the Labyrinth to twist and help her escape. It had done this to her. It wasn't going to help her now.

_Oh, God, I should call to Jareth. He could help,_ she thought wildly, her breath wheezing in her ears. Suddenly, she skidded, nearly falling as the realization slowly swept over her. Jareth wouldn't care. Jareth wouldn't help her, even if she screamed. Then, with a shuddering that made her squeeze her eyes shut, she realized _Jareth had sent her into the arms of this creature_. 

_No,_ Sarah thought weakly, and pushed herself off the wall she had collapsed against, running again. _He's angry at me, but Jareth wouldn't kill me. He wouldn't do this.... would he?_

She was gasping, her lungs burning, sweat trickling down her back. _It doesn't matter,_ she thought, stumbling again, and pulling herself up. _Even if he didn't do this, it won't matter. I can't keep running. My legs are aching with every step. I'm slowing down. I know it. It's going to catch me. There's nothing I can do._

She stumbled again, and this time it was much, much harder to get up. Sweat dripped into her eyes, and every breath rasped at her throat. She wasn't going to escape.

  
**

********

**

  
Jareth was pacing the dining hall. The two chairs Sarah had thrown at him were righted again, and the table was cleared. He wasn't angry any longer, but he was giving Sarah some time. He had foolishly thought that she was resigned to her fate. 

_She seemed so content yesterday,_ he thought, frowning. He sighed, turning to pace back the opposite direction, his boot heels clacking on the stones. _I guess I should have expected an outburst sooner or later. She isn't easily controlled, after all._

He turned again, pacing back the direction he'd just come from. He wanted to go to her and apologize. He knew he ought to, but he refused to. How could she think he would eventually send her back? Hadn't he made it clear she belonged Underground? Didn't she realize she belonged there, not Above in the fast-paced modern society? Didn't she know she belonged with _him_?

"Stupid," he whispered, lips tightening. Thoughts like that only drove him mad. Of course she didn't realize that she belonged Underground. She had only been there four days--not long enough for anyone to resign themselves to their fate. It had taken him a hundred years to begin to understand he belonged Underground, ruling the Labyrinth, and not in one of the richer, more opulent worlds. The magick in those worlds rejected him; he was strange even to the magick that vibrated in those worlds. He was the bastard child of a strange mating, and his soul vibrated with something too Other to belong anywhere. Sometimes, he wondered if the Labyrinth hadn't been created especially for him. Until he had found it, nothing but the goblins had lived there. When he discovered it, a tiny, glittering world all his own, he had claimed it easily. The magick there hadn't rejected him, but embraced him. Just like it was embracing Sarah.

"She doesn't belong on Earth. It can't accept her. She belongs here." With a growl, he conjured a crystal from the air, holding it gently on his gloved fingertips, concentrating on Sarah. He wanted to see her, see if she was calm enough for him to approach. If he had to, he would grovel to her to make her forgive him. He had offered to be her slave before. If that was what it would take to make her understand her position in all the magickal worlds, then he would.

"What...?" he whispered, as her image shimmered onto the crystal. Tears lined her cheeks, and her hair was tangled. Her face was pale except for two bright spots on her cheeks. Suddenly, echoing clearly from the crystal, he heard a hideous, grating roar. Then, he knew.

  
**

********

**

  
Sarah couldn't run any further. Her legs gave out like weak clay. She fell bruisingly onto the stones of the path. Behind her, the thing roared. It was a horrible sound, like an avalanche and a car crash and the sound of a huge tree snapping in the middle. It sounded like death and disaster, and it was agonizingly close behind her. She lifted her heavy head on a weary neck, eyes huge as she turned to look over her shoulder. The creature was barely twenty feet behind her. It roared again, and the smell of it came to her on the roar. Without knowing how, she pulled herself to her feet, stumbling up, facing the creature. She couldn't run--she could barely stand--but she wasn't going to just die. She would fight it.

There were no branches laying around for her to defend herself with, and when she pried at a stone in the wall, she only tore her fingernails. She was going to die, and she couldn't do anything about it.

"_Sarah!_ The desperation in the voice made new tears appear in her eyes, and Sarah jerked her head around to look behind her. Jareth was only five feet away, his eyes wide. "Sarah, _get back!_"

Her head snapped forward in time to see the huge paw the creature had raised while she'd been looking at Jareth begin to slam toward her.

_It's as big as my head,_ she thought dazedly, watching with a detached fascination as it swung toward her chest. _And the nails are as long as my hands._

She stumbled back, just one step, but it was enough to avoid the paw--almost. One long nail knicked into her chest just below her collarbone, and sent her spinning into the wall opposite the one she stood by. She crashed into it solidly, knocking the air out of herself. When she managed to suck in a painful breath and raise her head, she found Jareth standing before her, the creature shielded mercifully from her view by his body. She rose, wheezing, trying to grab Jareth's arm to pull him away.

"Sarah, go!" He snapped the words out, keeping his eyes on the huge beast that stood uncertainly, looking at the two of them. "Go now, Sarah, quickly. The Labyrinth will take you directly back to the castle." Sarah took a few steps away from him, then spun back. 

"No! You come, too!" He'd done nothing but torment her, but she couldn't leave him alone with that... that... thing.

"Sarah, leave! Don't worry--it won't hurt me." 

Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but at that moment the creature struck. Jareth was preoccupied with shouting at her, his head turned so he could lock a glare onto her and hurry her along, so he was not at all prepared. The huge paw hit him squarely in the chest, lifting him like a child's toy and spinning him in the air like some special effect in a movie. He flew twenty feet down the corridor, the wind of his passing lifting Sarah's hair from her shoulders to flutter behind her. With a feeble squeak, Sarah fled after him, crouching next to him. His shirt was in ribbons, seven huge sores scratched into the flesh of his chest. His eyes were shut, and for a second Sarah was sure he was dead. Then, weakly, he lifted his head, gesturing with one hand. As if the creature knew what he was doing, it roared, rushing toward them. But the open path was becoming a hazy memory as a wall slowly appeared. The creature was hidden from view after a moment, but the smell lingered. Behind the wall, Sarah could hear it roaring.

"We'd better leave. I've never known them to try to climb over the walls, but I've never known them to attack me, either." Jareth's voice was winded, but not weak. He was already struggling to his feet--using the wall to help pull himself up. His blond hair was ruffled and mussed, and blood was leaking down his torn chest, but he seemed only breathless.

"Are you all right?" Sarah gasped, putting out a hand as if to touch the torn skin.

"I'll be fine. Now come on, quickly." He grabbed her arm and half dragged her around a bend that appeared out of solid wall. After a few more twists, Sarah found them standing at the back door of the castle. Jareth paused then, looking at her carefully.

"You're bleeding," he said softly, touching her chin lightly to lift her head so that he could see the cut across her chest better.

"You're worse," she snapped, jerking her head away.

"I'll heal quickly," Jareth replied.

Sarah opened her mouth to growl a reply at him, but stopped when she saw his chest. Already the gaping wounds were less hideous than they had been only moments before. They had stopped bleeding, and almost seemed to be shrinking before her eyes.

"I need to get a better look at that cut. It can go septic quickly, Sarah. The Aljunnu are deadly."

"Is _that_ what that thing was?" Sarah gasped as Jareth walked toward the huge double door leading into the castle.

"Yes, and you should come with me. A wound from an Aljunnu can get bad in only seconds."

Sarah reached up to touch the scrape, and pulled her hand back quickly with a hiss of pain. The wound was tender and aching, and a little hot to the touch. It was definitely getting worse. Waves of fire seemed to seep from it into her, and her legs gave a weak tremble not entirely due to all the running they'd just done.

"I feel... odd," Sarah muttered. Jareth gave her a piercing look, the quickly walked back, scooping her into his arms. 

"I apologize for having to do this, but I need to treat that wound now." He carried her inside, but Sarah barely noticed. The fuzziness that was creeping into her brain was worse now, coming and going in waves of heat and ice. She clung to Jareth's ruined shirt with a hand that felt detached from her body, shivering despite the fact that she felt too hot.

Sarah was not aware when Jareth laid her down. Her eyes had fuzzed over a few moments before, and she had shut them to keep the rooms from spinning around her as he carried her. Briefly, she felt a cool hand touching her cheeks, then it was taken away. She heard the rustle of clothing, but couldn't seem to locate from which direction the noise was coming. It was getting hard to breathe, and she felt like she was twitching and spasming, although she didn't think she was moving at all. Gently, she felt a warm breath blown across the searing pain on her chest, then fingers brushing over it with infinite care. A warm, herbal scent touched her nose, chasing away some of the confusion. She heard murmured words, and felt the heat and cold drift away like a bad dream. Slowly, she opened her eyes, loathe to move. She felt wonderfully comfortable suddenly, and felt it was too much trouble even opening her eyes. She realized she was laying on a long, comfortable couch, and sat up very slowly. Jareth was sitting languidly in a chair near her, watching her. As she sat up, he stood, walking over.

"How do you feel?" he asked softly, looking at her with a curiously closed expression.

"Good," Sarah said softly, reaching up to touch her chest. She gasped, then tilted her head down in disbelief, staring at the bodice of her dress. There was no rip or bloodstain, though she knew it had been torn and covered in blood only a moment before. She patted cautiously at the wound, then frowned when she felt no pain. "What happened?"

"It is gone," Jareth replied softly, still watching her with that same empty expression on his face. "I used a medicinal salve and a bit of magick to erase it. It should trouble you no more."

"Thank you," Sarah said softly, looking up at him. His own chest was bare of wounds now, too, although his shirt was still shredded.

"Sarah... I want to ask you how you came to be with the Aljunnu."

"Oh... I was... mad. I guess I just didn't watch where I was going."

"Sarah." His tone was faintly scolding, and Sarah's spine straightened in annoyance.

"It's not like I wanted to be there. You don't have to scold me like a child."

"You did want to be there," Jareth replied. "While you were unconscious, I held a brief conversation with the Labyrinth. It took you to the Aljunnu because it is under orders to do as you command, and you wanted yourself dead."

"Oh," Sarah said, her pride and anger deflating like a pricked balloon as she realized what she'd almost done to herself. "I didn't mean to, Jareth."

"I know. But the magick here doesn't know that, Sarah. It only tried to do what you wanted it to do. You can't treat the magick that lightly, Sarah. It doesn't understand wishes that aren't meant. It can't tell a joke from a real want. It will try to please you, Sarah, no matter what you wish for. You wished to be dead, and it took you to the Aljunnu so that wish could be granted." Jareth stooped, staring into her wide, gray eyes. "That was a stupid thing to do, Sarah. You very nearly killed yourself."

"You saved me. Why?"

Jareth stood, backing away from her as if she had struck at him, staring at her with open confusion, his beautiful eyes wide. "Why? Sarah..." He made a weak gesture with his gloved hands, then shook his head. "Sarah... I had to."

"You didn't," Sarah replied, standing. "But I'm glad you did. I didn't really want to die, and..." She stopped, then burst out with, "I wouldn't think you'd _care_."

"What?" Jareth asked softly, looking somehow ruffled and uncomfortable. He looked the way she sometimes did when she was not ready to be around people, when she was too emotional to stand the sight of another person. She rushed on without thinking, trying not to look at him--and failing.

"You're half demon. You should enjoy me being killed by the Aljunnu."

"You... think I'd enjoy that?" His voice was hurt, and his eyes betrayed the awkward pain he felt.

"You've enjoyed sending others to the Aljunnu before. I thought... when I first saw it, I thought you'd sent me there."

"No!" It came out in a painful rush. There was a tightness around Jareth's beautiful eyes and proud mouth, and Sarah could see that he was in real physical pain from her accusation.

"But you're a demon," she said weakly, her argument faltering.

"I may be, but... Sarah, I didn't wish you dead. I wouldn't have sent you to the Aljunnu. I couldn't have."

"Your magick?" she asked softly.

"No... I have all the magick I need to twist a few paths. I physically and magickally could have, but emotionally and mentally I... Sarah, don't you realize how I feel for y--"

"I'm sorry I brought that up," Sarah said quickly, cutting him off. She couldn't stand hearing about his feelings for her--it made her feel guilty that she could not return the feelings.

_Can't, Sarah? Or won't?_ Sarah was jarred by the soft thought floating through her head, and for a second, a wild trembling rose inside of her. She felt dizzy, and for the briefest second she couldn't breathe. Then, her mind answered back weakly, _He kidnapped Toby. He was a monster to me. I can't love him._ The dizziness passed, and Sarah took a deep breath.

"Sarah?" Jareth's voice was concerned, and he had raised one darkly-gloved hand toward her.

"You saved me, Jareth, and I want to thank you." Awkwardly, she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him. For a second, he didn't respond, then he raised his arms, returning the embrace. She pulled away, though, almost as soon as his arms were around her, and smiled up at him uncomfortably.

"You know," she said, obviously trying to lighten the mood, "I've never been carried before."

"Really?" Jareth replied, willing to be jovial. "You do it so well." Sarah laughed, and Jareth smiled, then sobered. "I apologize for doing that. Picking you up like that, I mean. I didn't mean to act so... so..."

"Strong?" Sarah suggested, and Jareth laughed again.

"No, disrespectful."

"Hey," Sarah laughed, reaching out to flick a nail at his tattered shirt, "feel free to disrespect me like that anytime. I really felt like a princess, being carried around like that."

Jareth laughed warmly then, throwing his arms wide in a grand motion. "Sarah, haven't you figured it out yet? Here, you _are_ a princess!"


	11. An Invitation

**- chapter.11.an.invitation -**

  
Jareth went to change after that, his shirt useless, torn beyond recognition. Sarah also went to her room--to rest, on Jareth's orders. Something had changed, though. Him ordering her to do something would have rankled her normally, but Sarah didn't feel even a twinge of annoyance. Something between them had changed.

_No, _I've_ changed,_ Sarah realized, staring at herself in the vanity mirror. _I'm not as... angry as I was. Seeing Jareth trying to protect me like that... he really must lo--_ She cut the thought off by grabbing a brush from the vanity and trying to straighten her unkempt hair in a flurry of motion. Once she was sure the thought was safely chased away, she put the brush down and sighed. _I'll have to be nicer. I ought to try to at least be his friend._ Sarah did not feel the same tired resignation she had felt before when she thought of trying to befriend Jareth. Instead, she felt a whisper of a thrill, positively charmed by the idea of trying to become friends with Jareth. He was obviously much more than a baby-napper and a liar. Given time, Sarah was truly curious what she could find out about his personality. "I can't rest," Sarah muttered absently, pushing herself off of the huge, plush bed. She felt more alive than she had for such a long time.

_The last time I felt like this,_ Sarah thought, walking slowly over to her huge vanity table--so much larger than her own flimsy vanity at home--and sitting down, _was when I was facing Jareth in his Escher room. I wonder if M.C. Escher was inspired by Jareth, or if Jareth was inspired by Escher? Of course he'd seen the print in my room before, if he's watched me as long as he says he has... but did the print inspire him to create that room for me, or did that room exist years ago, and Escher just picked up on it somehow?_ Sarah reached down absently for a brush and began to gently pull it through her hair--which was ruffled, wind-blown, and sweat-tangled from the fight with the Aljunnu. She sat in a thoughtless silence for several minutes, relaxing and just brushing her hair, concentrating on straightening the long dark locks. Eventually, she put the brush down, satisfied that she looked much more normal, and stared at her reflection in the mirror.

_I don't look like me,_ was her first startled thought. Then, as she squinted and tilted her head, she saw her own face peering out--but definitely changed. There was a new shine in her eyes, one she'd never seen before. She looked... alive. Much more alive than she ever had before.

"If I could avoid getting clawed, I'd almost think it was a good experience to see an Aljunnu every day," Sarah murmured softly to her reflection, joking because she knew it wasn't the Aljunnu that had put this glimmer in her eyes.

Sarah stood, turning away from the girl in the mirror who looked like a much-older version of herself, and walked to the door of her room. She touched the door gently with her fingertips, speaking to it softly.

"I'd like to see Jareth." She tried the handle, and it turned easily, but the door remained firmly shut, as if it were melded into the wall. "Now, don't do that. I know he said I had to rest--I heard him. But I'd rather spend some time with him." When the door still did not open, Sarah spoke to it cajolingly. She'd only ever used that voice before when Merlin was in a particular temper and was refusing to cooperate with her, and she had to convince him that she knew best, and had never hurt him before, and wouldn't he much rather come to the park while she recited than stay in the house, pouting on the sofa cushions? She tilted her head to one side as she spoke, giving the door a reproachful stare. "I am not at all tired. I feel more alive and awake than I have _ever_. Now, look, I want to see Jareth. I want to talk to him, spend time with him. I thought that was the point in bringing me here. Now, please, let me out so that I can go to him."

This time, the door opened easily, but when she stepped out, there was only a blank wall before her--no corridor leading to either side, or doors that might lead to a hallway and a staircase.

"Now stop that. I doubt Jareth is sitting around thinking how nice it is to be rid of me for awhile. I want to go to him." Slowly, a tiny archway appeared before her. A very tiny archway. Sarah had to crouch to get through, shuffling her feet. "You're being mean," she scolded once she'd gotten through, but headed down the hall before her. A spiral staircase led down at the end of the hall, and she followed it, stepping right into the middle of the throne room.

"Oh," Sarah said, startled. She disliked when the castle plopped her into the middle of a room without giving her a doorway to walk through--it was disorienting.

"Hey!" a goblin shouted at the sight of her, grabbing for a stick. "It's the girl with the baby!"

"Idiot," Jareth snarled, rising from his throne. "That's been four days past." The goblin subsided, casting doubtful, mistrusting glances at Sarah, twiddling the stick in his stumpy hands. Jareth sighed heavily, shaking his head, and stepped over to Sarah. He laid a gloved hand on her arm gently, a little hesitantly.

"My door was being stubborn," Sarah said in lieu of a greeting.

"As are you," Jareth replied, arching his brows. "I thought I told you to rest."

"You did," Sarah answered, smiling. "I didn't feel like it."

"Hmm," Jareth rumbled softly, his hand still resting on her shoulder. "The door had been told to keep you in there. I'm a bit surprised you got out at all."

"Nothing's impossible for me," Sarah said, giving a nonchalant little shrug. Jareth removed his hand, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm beginning to see that," he responded dryly, but Sarah recognized a gleam in his eyes that gave away his amusement.

"I wanted to spend some time with you," Sarah said firmly, giving his shirtsleeve a tug. "I wanted to talk with you, learn more about you. Can we go to your garden?"

Jareth glanced around the throne room, as if trying to decide if he were needed. Seeing the goblins were entranced in their own little pleasures, he offered Sarah his crooked arm. Smiling, she tucked her hand into the bend of his elbow, fingertips feeling his pulse in the soft skin of his inner elbow through the thin white poet's shirt. Jareth's eyebrows raised again, obviously disarmed by her willingness to have physical contact with him besides resting her fingertips on his elbow, then smiled faintly, his face relaxing.

The walk was pleasantly quiet, locked in a companionable silence broken only by the soft 'tup-tup' of Sarah's loafers and the firmer 'tak-tak' of Jareth's boot heels on the stone floor, giving Sarah a chance to sneak sidelong glances at Jareth as they walked.

_I hadn't noticed that he isn't that much taller than I am,_ she thought, sneaking a peek by pretending to toss her hair back over her shoulder. _He's just so scowlingly fierce usually... it makes him look taller than he really is. And I never noticed that he's beautiful before. I've seen the frightening beauty, but this new beauty is definitely an improvement. He looks approachable right now. His face is more relaxed than I can ever remember seeing it before... usually he looks sardonic or mean. Right now, he just looks... thoughtful... like a younger man in a coffee house, sipping some specialty coffee and reading poetry._

_I usually notice his clothes and not him. He's always so _dramatic_. Long capes, tall boots, ruffles and silver. I never noticed how... nice he looks. Not like boys I see at home, gangly or bulky. He reminds me of... of a ballet dancer. Honed and... and... well, handsome. He has very beautiful legs._ Sarah laughed softly to herself, scolding herself mentally. _Imagine, thinking someone has beautiful _legs_, of all things._

"Something funny?" Jareth asked softly, glancing over at her. She shook her head, stifling a grin. When he turned away, she peeked at him again.

_And he has such beautiful eyes. Not just the colors--although they are very wonderful--but the shape. And his eyebrows. And his nose._ Sarah frowned, cutting her babbling thoughts off. _You sound like an infatuated groupie at a concert. Cut it out, for goodness sake._

"Sarah?" His voice was soft, and Sarah glanced up. He was watching her curiously, his brows arched again. "We're here."

"Oh. Hey, yeah, we are." Sarah snatched her hand back, suddenly worried he'd detect what she'd been thinking. She blinked a few times, trying to glance quickly around, trying to absorb the riotous colors of the garden so her eyes would stop smarting. She'd have done better to stare at the noon sun on a hot summer day and hope that her eyes would adjust to the light. She squinted, rubbing her eyes with balled fists, and felt a gentle hand touching her shoulder.

"Are you all right?"

"The colors," Sarah muttered, still squinting. "They're a little hard to take in, you know."

"Ah. I forgot. Your eyes are not yet used to the Underground."

"Oh, the rest of it doesn't bother me. It's just this one place. Everything else is sort of dulled, you know? It only bothers me here, in your garden, where the colors are just... more. They're like all the colors I'm used to back home, but more than the colors I'm used to." Sarah paused, biting her lip. "Did that make sense?"

"A little," Jareth smirked, walking slowly past her. "You said you wanted to talk?"

"Oh, yeah." Sarah trotted after him quickly, and when she caught up, she walked beside him thoughtfully, not touching him. She didn't feel right taking his arm when she had come out to the garden with ulterior motives. "Why don't we go sit under a fruit tree?"

"Any preferences?" Jareth asked, gesturing at the many different trees before them.

"Anything but peaches," Sarah joked, shooting him a teasing smile. Jareth laughed then, an honest laugh. He tossed his head back, mouth opening wide, eyes crinkling at the corners. 

_Whoa,_ Sarah thought, her heart skipping. _I'll have to be careful how often I make him do that. I've never seen him _really_ laugh before... and he's... whoa._

"Fair enough," Jareth said once he'd finished his completely enchanting laugh. He led her across the sparkling emerald grass to a pear tree, leaning against the trunk comfortably. Sarah found it impossible to sit, and paced a short path before him, dragging her feet against the grass, hesitating.

Finally, after a long silence filled only with the soft swishing of Sarah's loafers against the grass, Jareth tilted his head back, golden hair shimmering against the darkness of the tree's trunk. "You wanted to talk, Sarah?"

"Why did you bring me here, Jareth?" It burst out of her before she could think of a way to make it tactful, and when it was said, it hung between them like a living creature.

"You asked me to," Jareth said, rich voice soft.

"No, really. Why did you do all that the day after I got back from the Labyrinth. The whole thing." Sarah gestured with her hands. "The window, the rain, the whole thing."

"I told you once I loved you. And I do. I have, for ever so long. Love can make a person do stupid things--like tricking the one they love into spending time with them. I will admit to tricking you by offering you what you wanted without first making you aware of the consequences. But, Sarah," and Jareth pushed himself off of the tree, moving over to cup her cheek in his gloved palm, "I did what I did because I loved you."

"I don't understand," Sarah whispered, staring up into his face. She was used to Jareth looking imposing, or angry, or sarcastic. The expression on his face as he looked down at her was not one she had ever seen before. It was... longing. Desperate longing, and a heart-wrenching pain that made her eyes water with unshed tears.

_God, why is he looking at me like that? Like I'm the long-lost Princess in some faerytale, a princess that he's spent his entire life questing after?_

"I love you because of what you are, Sarah. You are innocence, purity. You have a gentle heart, but you're brave. You are full of sweetness, but you can be hard when you have to." His hand shifted faintly on her face, the pad of his thumb stroking her cheek. "When I saw you for the first time, I thought I'd stumbled across a cherubin. I've wanted to possess things before, objects to amuse me, but I'd never wanted to _be_ possessed before. As I watched you grow, I found myself wanting to belong to you. I'd never felt like that before, and it left me confused and angry." His voice was low, soothing, his thumb moving gently back and forth across her cheek. "I watched you from the shadows, watched you grow. You retained your innocence, and I felt myself drawn closer and closer as the years passed. I was like the night moth drawn inexplicably toward a shining light. 

"I knew eventually you would call on me again, but the waiting was like a torture. I had to stand back and watch you go through life... through the pain and joys of your existence. I was there when you wept, standing in the shadows, wanting to comfort you. When you laughed, I laughed with you, even if you couldn't hear me. I celebrated your victories, and mourned your losses. And I waited, always I waited."

He drew his hand away then, letting it fall to his side. Sarah took a deep breath, as if she were rising above the surface of a dark lake, and gave her head a little shake. An errant tear slipped from her eyes, and she quickly swiped it away.

"Have you ever read Dante, Sarah?" He smiled as she nodded slowly. "I only ask to bring it to your mind--I have seen you reading Dante. He was a wonderful writer, for his time. He saw more than most humans ever see in their lives." Jareth paused, seeming to collect his thoughts. "I saw you lingering over his first sonnet in "The Inferno." It appealed to you, did it not? Let me refresh your memory." Jareth tilted his head back faintly, speaking the words in his softly cultured accent, one hand raised as if trying to pluck the words from the air.

"Love appeared to me so suddenly  
That I still shudder at the memory.  
Joyous Love seemed to me, the while he held  
My heart within his hands, and in his arms  
My lady lay asleep wrapped in a veil.  
He woke her then and trembling and obedient  
She ate that burning heart out of his hand."

Jareth paused, lowering his raised hand and sighing, as if the repetition had exhausted him. "That sonnet came into my mind the first time I saw you, Sarah. I felt as if Love had come upon me and plucked my heart from my chest, holding every emotion I could ever hope to have in his hands. And then, without a care for how I might react, Love gave my heart to you." He reached out, gently running his gloved fingers through her long hair. "He gave my heart to you."

Jareth plucked a pear from the tree at his back, tossing it to Sarah. She caught it, looked down at it without comprehension, then looked back up at Jareth.

"We've been out here long past lunch, Sarah. You should eat that to keep your strength." When Sarah looked down doubtfully at the fruit, Jareth added, "It isn't enchanted."

"Okay," Sarah said softly, her own voice foreign and hard in her ears. It sounded flat and dull after Jareth's melodic murmuring. She bit into the juicy fruit, cupping a hand under her chin to catch the juice. 

"Sarah... I offered you an enchanted ball before. I would like to make the same offer... without the enchantments on you." Jareth smiled disarmingly. "Come to a ball with me tonight. No tricks. I would just like to dance, and let you be the princess you truly are."

Sarah hesitated, then slowly nodded. "Okay. Tonight."

"After the time for dinner has come and gone," Jareth agreed, bowing slightly. "I'll need to warn the castle, let it begin preparing itself, and help it to outfit itself. You can wander the garden, if you'd like, or visit Hoggle, or go to your room." Jareth raised his hand, touching his glove-encased fingers fleetingly to her cheek, then walked away, leaving her standing in the garden, a white spot on the rioting colors.


	12. Decisions

**- chapter.12.decisions. -**

  
Sarah wandered the garden for several hours after Jareth had left, trying to kill time before she had to go inside for dinner. If he were going to try and enchant her again, she wanted to avoid seeing his face, seeing possible guilt in his eyes. She didn't want to know he was turning on her until she had to.

The garden was still as riotous as it had been with Jareth there, the colors flashing in shades too vivid to be fully comprehended, but it was empty. It felt like much of the castle and Labyrinth had felt when she found herself walking alone--echoing, empty. It was beyond the emptiness of a normal deserted garden. At home, no garden was ever really empty; birds were always singing in the trees, swooping down to pluck an errant ladybird off of the petals of a flower. There was always the soughing of wind and the murmur of distant voices. But here, there was nothing except the soft whisper of her feet passing over the emerald grass.

"I wonder were all the robins are? And the chaffinches, and the sparrows, and the grackles. After all, there are _always_ grackles somewhere." Sarah glanced around for the yellow-eyed black-feathered birds, but saw none.

"Well," she amended, continuing her walk through the garden, "I don't suppose an enchanted garden would have grackles in it. And of course this garden is enchanted--how else can I explain how the fruit on the trees don't have any holes in them? Even the best pesticides don't deter all the bugs and birds from having a taste of fresh fruit." Sarah reached up, plucking a handful of rich, purple-red cherries from a tree. "At home, these would be full of tiny bug-nibbles and bird-pecks." She popped one into her mouth, peeling the fruit from the seed with her tongue, then spitting the seed onto the emerald grass. "And they wouldn't taste so sweet, either."

Sarah finished her cherries, wiped her hands on the grass to try and remove most of the juice, then sighed.

"He has so much power here--even power to keep his garden perfect. Why doesn't he go find himself some beautiful princess, or if a princess won't come, a grand duchess? He's very handsome, and almost companionable. Any princess or duchess would be glad to stay here. But me? I'm just a little nobody, a high school Junior." She stopped walking, ticking her faults off on her fingers. "Too shy to join the Drama Club, too stupid to join the Academic Club, not talented enough to join the Cheerleading Squad, too fashionless to join the Fashion Club, too dull to join a Foreign Language club. I'm not strong-willed enough to join the Leadership Club, nor do I have to ability to join the Choir. I'm too clumsy to join the Dance Squad, too timid to run for Student Office, and too awkward to join any sports. I'm... oh." Sarah looked down at her hands, slowly realizing she'd run out of fingers to count her deficiencies on. "Well, that should prove that I'm the worst choice."

Her hands dropped to her sides, and she sighed. She knew she wasn't really any of those things anymore. She had only been Underground with Jareth for four days, but already she could see the differences in her personality that hadn't been there before. She had faced the Aljunnu, running back to help Jareth when she could have escaped. It took courage to do that, courage in amounts Sarah hadn't realized she'd possessed. She had become comfortable walking through the Labyrinth, a place that--only four days before--had scared her, intimidated her and made her feel small and useless.

"I'm not the same girl I once was," Sarah whispered softly, feeling a sinking in her stomach. Slow realization was dawning on her, and the knowledge it brought made her unhappy.

_I didn't fit in back home before I ever wished Toby onto Jareth,_ she thought, her head bowed, dark hair falling like a silken curtain around her face. _I was afraid I'd be even more odd after I rescued Toby... and now I've been here for four days. I've seen magickal things happen that just _can't_ happen, and I've met creatures that can't possibly exist. Am I going to fit in at _all_ back home now?_

Sarah sat down on a patch of grass beneath a fruit tree, leaning her head back to stare into the sallow red sky. "Jareth keeps saying that this is my home... is that possible? Am I like a lost soul, someone who got put where they didn't belong? Like a hospital mixing up two babies, only in this mix-up, I ended up in the wrong dimension or something?" Sarah sighed, drawing her fingers through the luminescent grass by her leg. "Everything is so strange now. Ever since I called on Jareth nothing has seemed the same. Even I'm not the same. I don't recognize me anymore."

Sarah stopped, her mouth tightening faintly.

"Of course I recognize me." She held her hands up. "These are my hands, the same as they've always been, on the same wrists and arms. I'm still me, even if I'm Underground." She sighed, dropping her hands into her lap. "I want to be home again. I want my room." 

Instantly, images of her room sprang into her head, making her throat ache with longing. Her own bed, her shelves covered in stuffed animals and trinkets, the pictures of her mother, her books...

"I can't stay here." The words came out a miserable whisper, her throat tight with pain. "I can't wait for Jareth to get tired of me, and I can't be patient any more. Hoggle said he'd mess up eventually, but I don't see what he could do that would make it possible for me to go home." Something tickled her cheek, and Sarah reached up to brush the tickle away, only to pull her hand away wet with tears. "I have to go home. Jareth will have to see that. I can't be happy here, knowing my family is worried about me, knowing that I was torn from my life. He has to realize that."

Sarah stood, giving her face a quick wipe to hide any tears, and headed resolutely for the palace. Upon walking into the long, stony hallways, Sarah stopped, tilting her head back to speak to the air around her.

"I want to go to Jareth." She started forward quickly, and in front of her the long hallway shimmered, twisting even as she watched. She took the turn that appeared out of the wall, and found herself at a staircase.

_Would a ballroom be upstairs?_ she wondered absently, mounting the staircase with firm steps. _I guess it doesn't matter in an enchanted castle. Ballrooms can be anywhere they like to. I wonder if it's a beautiful ballroom? Of course it would be... I'm almost sad I won't get to see it. It would be--_

The thought was cut short as she made a weak noise of surprise. As she'd come to the top of the staircase, she'd seen a door. When she opened it, though, she was looking not into a huge ballroom or even another hallway, but into her very own room.

"What... no, I don't want to be _here_," Sarah gasped, almost offended. "Take me to _Jareth_."

She turned, headed back down the staircase. At the bottom, instead of a hallway, she found herself looking at another door. Upon opening it, she found herself once again staring into her own room, although always before her room had been _up_ a flight of stairs, not _down_.

"_No!_" Sarah snarled, cheeks flushing with blood. "I want to go to the ballroom! _Right now!_"

She turned to go back up the staircase, but it was gone, replaced by a long hallway. She stormed down it, fairly trotting in her anger. At the end was another door. Her shoulders sagged as she realized what she would probably find upon opening the door.

"Why do you keep bringing me here?" Sarah asked the empty air wearily. There was no answer other than the door opening slowly in front of her, revealing her room. Sarah stepped up to the doorway to glance inside, hoping perhaps that the ballroom was--maybe, just maybe--attached to her room. She saw only her normal room, the candles on the walls just lighting.

_How long have I been looking for the ballroom, anyway? It was only a few hours past lunch when I started in!_ Sarah thought absently as the last few candles lit themselves. Across from her, the wardrobe doors gave a little tremble, almost like a lady-in-waiting clearing her throat to get one's attention.

"Am I to dress for the ball then? I suppose Jareth and I will eat while we dance, balancing plates on our heads and cups on our noses?"

The wardrobe opened one door slightly, almost enticingly, and Sarah sighed, lifting her arms to the sides, making a 'T' with her body, eyes rolling Heavenward.

"All right. Go ahead--I know you've wanted to. Dress me like a doll. Do your magick."

She was shutting her eyes so she might be surprised, so she only caught the barest of glimpses when the wardrobe flung it's huge doors open. There was a violent flash of color like the garden's many colors, but silky and velvety and laced up and down at every angle. Then, Sarah's eyes were firmly shut and she saw nothing but sparkling after-images of colors on the blackness of her lids. She felt a whispering of wind about herself, like a teasing summer breeze, and heard the rustling of huge skirts. Her hair was lifted from her shoulders, and the dozy feeling always inspired by having her hair played with came over her, making her rock faintly on her feet. After a moment, though, she became aware that the little breeze was gone and the rustling of cloth had stopped. She peeked one eye, then the other opened, then quickly clamped them shut. She didn't want to look down and see the dress until she could see all of herself. Very slowly, she turned toward the vanity mirror, opening her eyes to look at herself, and her breath caught in her throat. Instantly, she remembered her thoughts from earlier.

_Even I'm not the same. I don't recognize me anymore._

Her hair had been pulled back and was held high on her head, in a kind of Grecian-looking ponytail, long tendrils falling in curls down her neck. The dress was a work of magick in itself, a shimmering gown with long, open sleeves and a full pale blue skirt. The neckline was not immodest, but showed enough of her pale chest to bring a flush to her cheeks. Her feet, when she looked, were covered in tiny, beautiful shoes encrusted with sapphires and blue lace agates the exact color of her skirt. She looked terribly beautiful and fresh, and for a second she found herself almost wishing she could stay and truly be a princess.

_But I can't. I have to go home. I have to._ Instantly, the warm flush drained from her face, leaving her pale and resolute. The gown still shimmered, but now it shimmered like the steel of a knife blade and not like sunlight on a wild and untouched stream. She looked determined and resolute, which was exactly how she felt.

"We'll dance, Jareth," she said softly, turning to leave her room. "We'll dance... and then I'll go home. This is the end."


	13. Whisper of a Thrill

**- chapter.13.whisper.of.a.thrill -**

  
Jareth was pacing from one end of the ballroom to the other over and over, his boot heels clacking as he walked, then hissing when he turned. He'd been aware of Sarah coming back in from the garden--he'd set up a very thin magickal web across the doorway to give him a warning when she reentered the castle. 

He'd finished the last few preparations only a few minutes before he'd begun his restless pacing. He could feel how much rested on the night before him. Sarah had been friendly with him for the last day, and he hated to ruin that.

_She's been kind to you ever since the encounter with the Aljunnu,_ he told himself, sighing as he glanced over the ballroom impatiently once again. _Ever since you saved her life._

They had become... friends. He hesitated to think of them that way--it seemed almost too good to be true--but he knew that he was not misnaming their relationship. Sarah had cared enough to wait for him when faced with an Aljunnu, had listened to his ramblings in the garden without reprimanding him, and had accepted an invitation to a ball when she could have said she preferred staying in her room, or visiting one of the friends she'd made her first evening in the Labyrinth--when she'd been hunting for her brother.

Jareth could admit to himself that he'd made a mistake. Trying to win Sarah's affections in a show of power had only made her see him as an enemy to overcome, like a Princess in some faery story facing off against a corrupt wizard uncle.

_Could she have come to love me,_ he wondered, tugging briefly at some spider-webby lacing around his wrists, _if I had come to her as a suitor? A young man who approached her in the park, after one of her recitations? Could she have accepted me, eventually, as the powerful Goblin King if I was first her friend?_ He frowned, sharply tilted brows drawing down like thunderheads over the clear colors of his eyes. _It doesn't matter if it could have been changed. I made my choice, and I would not change that... would not change what fledgling friendship we have. She is too dear to me... and, perhaps given time, she will come to hold me just as dear._

From across the ballroom, he heard the sound of the huge doors beginning to swing open. The multitude of lank, short, disgusting goblins instantly transformed into a shimmering parade of masked men and women, and a band struck up a haunting dance melody.

_I said a ball without enchantments to you, my dear,_ Jareth thought, smiling in anticipation, his heart picking up speed. _I said nothing about enchanting the ball itself._

  
**

********

**

  
Sarah felt her heart flutter weakly in her chest as the huge gold-and-ivory decorated double doors to the ballroom slowly slid open before her, seeming to open without the help of any people that she could see. She felt like a small, drab little sparrow before them, and then like a roughed, water-logged mouse as she saw the ball before her, behind the doors.

There were masked dancers dressed in every color of the rainbow, and some colors she'd only seen in Jareth's garden. The ballroom itself--easily two stories tall, and four times as big as her house back on Earth--shimmered with walls made of hundreds of multi-paned mirrors, reflecting the dancers back in shining flickers of color. Sarah felt as if she'd wandered into a kaleidoscope.

"You made it." The voice was soft, and Sarah became aware of the warmth radiating from Jareth's body just next to her. She turned her head, and smiled weakly up at him.

"Only just," she said, and gave a wild laugh, adding, "My coach and four got a little lost on the way."

"Is it too much?" Jareth asked, gesturing.

"No, it seems vaguely familiar," Sarah said, casting him a sharp glance. "And this queasy, confused feeling seems familiar to this setting as well."

"I can remove the dancers, if you want," Jareth said, raising a hand to gesture them away.

"Not yet," Sarah said quickly, reaching up to catch his sleeve in her slim fingers. "For just a little while, it might be nice to dance with others around us."

Jareth smiled slowly, and raised his hands slightly. Sarah stepped into his embrace, his hand settling gently on her waist as her own rested upon his shoulder, their free hands catching one another lightly. They began to sway, then slowly moved into the dance.

_How kind of him,_ Sarah thought absently, _to strike up a dance I actually recognize._

Sarah had studied Medieval dance briefly for a year or two, when she discovered that Medieval times had dances all their own, dances much more beautiful than the ridiculous bump and grind she'd seen at the two school sponsored dances she'd attended. She had actually become quite good at a few dances before she'd stopped taking lessons at the local Period Dance studio, preferring to spend less time with other people.

Sarah became less aware of her own thoughts as she watched Jareth's proud face. He had been beautiful to her before on several occasions, but none had struck her as strongly as it did while she was circling in and out of his arms, going through the motions of the dance. She found herself hard pressed to take her eyes off of him, even when the dance called for it, and was actually grateful when the song ended, and a soft melody with no particular dance assigned to it began to drift over the ballroom. She returned to his arms again, gazing up into his eyes.

_I could stay here all night,_ Sarah thought languidly.

Jareth and Sarah spoke very little as they danced, preferring to simply watch one another. They'd spent the last four days in a flurry of words--kind and unkind--and for the moment, they preferred the silence to be broken only by music and the sound of laughter and meaningless chatter from the dancers around them.

Sarah didn't know how long they'd been dancing when she suddenly stumbled against someone. She knew she wasn't enchanted--at least, not by anything more magickal than Jareth's mismatched eyes--but she hadn't noticed how many songs had passed, or how long they'd been dancing. Her legs didn't hurt, and she didn't feel fatigued at all. 

"Apologies," the man she'd bumped into muttered before vanishing into the crowd quickly.

Sarah grinned up at Jareth faintly, and said softly, "I guess even enchantments have clumsy oafs in them."

Jareth widened his bright eyes in feigned innocence, protesting softly. "What enchantment do you mean, Sarah?"

Sarah laughed up at him, jabbing him gently in his side with one fingertip. "The ballroom, of course. You said you wouldn't enchant _me_, but you made no mention of the ballroom... or the dancers."

Jareth smiled slowly, brows lifting. "You know me too well."

"I appreciate it," Sarah murmured, lifting her hands again to resume their interrupted dance. "I find I enjoy dancing with you much more when I have a choice in the matter."

"I am sorry I tried to enchant you before," Jareth said softly, his hand tightening slightly on her waist. "I thought it would... impress you."

"Impress me?" Sarah asked, then laughed. "And you said you've watched mw for eleven years? Did you have on black-out goggles or something? Imagine... impressing me by sending me whacky."

Jareth laughed with her then, his face lighting up beautifully. Sarah's own laugh caught in her throat as she stared at him, thinking weakly, _If he doesn't stop doing that, I may not be able to make myself go when the time comes._

"Oh, Sarah..." Jareth twirled her, keeping a firm hold of her waist to avoid her stumbling again. "You make me feel... so alive. I can't remember feeling like this before..."

In the background, Sarah heard the song drifting over them change again, and with a shock, she realized she recognized it.

_Daddy used to listen to that song when I was little. He loved that song. Some ridiculous oldie by Dan Fogelberg... why on Earth is it being played here in the Underground?_

As the music began to rise, Jareth reached up one slim hand--_He hasn't got on gloves,_ Sarah thought wildly. _How slim and aristocratic his fingers are._ His hand touched her cheek gently, his skin warm and smooth against her face, and he began to sing softly.

"High on this mountain  
The clouds down below  
I'm feeling so strong and alive  
From this rocky perch  
I'll continue to search  
For the wind and the snow and the sky  
Oh, I want a lover and I want some friends  
And I want to live in the sun  
And I want to do all the things that I never have done..."

Jareth's hand moved up from her cheek, freeing her hair from the loose Grecian ponytail. Sarah felt the strands cascade down her back as she thought weakly, _I always thought the song was beautiful when Dan Fogelberg sang it in his clear soprano... but Jareth makes it sound like a rough, loving caress. I had forgotten just how beautiful his voice is..._

Jareth's bare fingers tangled in her dark hair as the music rose again, and he continued the song.

"Sunny bright mornings and pale moonlit nights  
Keep me from feeling alone  
Now I'm learning to fly and this freedom is like  
Nothing that I've ever known  
Oh, I've seen the bottom and I've been on top  
But mostly I've lived in between  
And where do you go when you get to the end of your dream?"

Jareth's hand cupped the back of her head gently, his other hand sliding from her waist to the small of her back, pulling her close to him, his voice undulating through her like fine gravel sifted slowly through silk. The warmth of his body against hers made her heart pound as he sang the next verse.

"Off in the Nether Lands I heard the sound  
Like the beating of heavenly wings  
And deep in my brain I can hear a refrain  
Of my soul as she rises and sings  
Anthems to glory and anthems to love  
And hymns filled with earthly delight  
Like the songs that the darkness composes to worship the light..."

There was another verse--Sarah knew it--but the music sighed on without Jareth's voice as he slowly lowered his head, his lips pressing against hers like a weak, fluttering brush of a butterfly's wings. Slowly, he pulled her into the kiss, his lips moving over hers in something more like a caress than a kiss. Sarah realized, at some point, her eyes had shut of their own accord, and she didn't care. For the moment, nothing mattered but the taste of Jareth's mouth against hers, and the spiraling, fiery sensation of his lips embracing her own. It felt as if sparks were exploding from their joined lips, and Sarah felt her pulse thundering.

Then, suddenly, with a snap she realized what she was doing. She jerked away with a gasp, her eyes snapping open. She saw the shock pass over Jareth's face, then she turned and rushed from the ballroom, the last notes of the Dan Fogelberg song drifting over her as she crashed through the double doors.


	14. Just Something We Do

**- chapter.14.just.something.we.do -**

  
Jareth felt shuddery and empty. She had run from him. He'd opened himself up utterly, shown her his bared soul, and she'd rejected him and run from him.

A few days before, Jareth would have flown into a rage. But Sarah had changed him, despite his belief that he was what he was. He felt drained, not angry. 

He raised a heavy hand, making a quick gesture, and instantly the glamour fell from the goblins and the ballroom, leaving behind the last crashing note from the music that had just been rising to a new song. The goblins, sensing a foreboding tremble in the air, scattered like mice, leaving Jareth alone in the empty, echoing ballroom.

She had run from him.

Slowly, Jareth gathered himself up. He was not angry, but he was also not defeated--Sarah hadn't been ready for the kiss, that was all that had troubled her. She had run because she had panicked. It was not rejection of him, but a rejection of the fear that had washed over her when she'd realized how much he loved her. She would be more accepting of him now, after having had a few moments to calm herself and gather her thoughts.

Jareth straightened himself slowly, pushing down the aching emptiness in his chest. Having Sarah with him for the last four days had opened him up to his feelings more than anything else in his long life ever had. He couldn't picture what would happen to him if she rejected him again, crushing their fledgling friendship.

_She won't,_ Jareth thought, rubbing a hand over his face as if to wipe away his doubts. _She will begin to love me soon... we are so terribly right for one another. She will see it... and love me._

But he was afraid. He had been rejected by girls before, but he'd not loved any of those girls. They'd been mere distractions to him, passing amusements. He had played with them until he'd grown weary of them, and then tossed them away. He'd never felt even a fraction for them of what he felt for Sarah.

_I barely felt anything at all back then,_ Jareth thought, gazing around him at the empty ballroom. _I didn't begin to feel until I saw Sarah. She... opened me, like a key in a lock so old it had forgotten what it's use was._

Jareth sighed. When he'd first met Sarah, he'd often wondered if _she_ were the reason he had been created. He'd never fit in until he found the Labyrinth, but even in the Labyrinth he had been alone. He had felt as if some intrinsic part of himself were missing, and had sought to fill the emptiness with cruelty. At first, he had been amused by the young people he destroyed... but eventually it began to bore him, as all things bored him. But when he saw Sarah, everything began to make sense to him.

_She doesn't belong in her world any more than I belonged in mine. She's too innocent and fey to fit into humanity, but too tainted to belong in the Angelic realms. She is the pure light to my corrupt darkness._ Jareth groaned, shaking his head, throwing the thoughts away from him.

"She's had some time to herself," he murmured softly. "She'll be calmer now."

Jareth left behind the ballroom, the clack of his boot heels echoing emptily in the background.

  
**

********

**

  
Sarah had almost torn the ball dress from herself when she reached her room. She flung the shimmering, gauzy material to the floor, grabbing her own plain white Renaissance dress from the back of the chair at the vanity table where it waited almost patiently for her. She pulled it on and kicked away the shoes encrusted with blue stones, shoving her feet into her loafers. Tears were coursing down her cheeks, and she felt completely miserable.

She didn't want to leave.

She had realized it as she'd been kissing Jareth--and she didn't hesitate to admit to herself that she _had_ been kissing him. It was not at all a one-sided kiss. She had even... enjoyed it.

"But I _can't_ stay," Sarah sobbed, dragging her soft sleeve over her eyes to wipe away the tears. New ones immediately rose in her eyes, taking the places of those she'd wiped away. 

Sarah heard a soft knock on her door, and straightened, wiping her eyes again. She knew who it was--who else but Jareth would now be tapping on her door?

"Come in." Her voice wavered only slightly, and she was proud of herself for not breaking into new sobs as he slowly opened the door, still dressed in his finery from the ball.

"I surprised you with the kiss," Jareth said softly, getting straight to the point. "I want to apologize for that. I never wanted to hurt you, Sarah. The ball, the kiss, the dress... it's all been to show you that I love you, to make you see that I mean it when I tell you that you're all I've desired for years. I want to make you happy, Sarah. That's all I desired when I brought you here--an end to my misery, and the beginning of a new life for both of us."

Sarah choked, trying to hold back a sob, and new tears spilled down her face. He was in pain, and she couldn't stand to see him in pain--not anymore.

At the sight of her tears, Jareth's calm collapsed. His face twisted, and he stepped toward her quickly, making an involuntary noise of anguish, his fingers clumsy for the first time Sarah had known them to be as they wiped the tears from her face.

"Please, don't," Jareth gasped, his voice a ragged whisper. "If there is anything I can give you that would make this pain in you stop, I will give it to you now. Ask anything of me, Sarah, and if it's in my power to give it to you, I will."

Sarah felt new tears gathering in her eyes as she gazed up into his face, which was more open then she'd ever seen it before. All his defenses were gone, and he looked so beautiful to her then. His love for her was not just a part of him, but it was what he _was_. He literally shone with love for her, his eyes luminescent as he gazed at her. It was the very beauty of him that gave Sarah courage.

_I don't deserve him,_ she thought, staring up into his face, so beautiful with love for her.

"I ask for my freedom," Sarah said softly. "I ask to go home to my family, where I belong."

Pain welled up slowly in Jareth's face, destroying the sparkling of love in his eyes. His expression seemed to collapse in on itself, and the fingers on Sarah's face went cold. Then, slowly, his face seemed to wall up again, closing her out.

"You ask me to send you home, Sarah. I cannot keep you here, not when I have promised to give you whatever you wished for. I will reverse time for your family... you will be home when you father and step-mother return from visiting your grandparents four days ago. All will be as it should be." He looked at her, raising a slim hand fleetingly to brush his bare fingertips over her lips. "All will be as it should be." He leaned down, his lips replacing his fingertips. 

His first kiss in the ballroom had been like heat. It had made Sarah's head spin and sent her heart pounding wildly against her breast. It had felt uncontrollably passionate, like liquid fire in her veins. This second kiss was so chaste, just the barest tremble of Jareth's lips against her own. The anguish in this kiss made Sarah want to jerk back and scream, "I changed my mind! Please, don't send me away!" but a wild, thrashing wind had surrounded her. She could no longer feel Jareth near her.

"Jareth!" she screamed, flinging her arms out desperately, but there was nothing but a whirling darkness. She could feel her consciousness slipping from her, and very dimly she thought she heard Jareth whisper through the lashing wind, "I will be watching you always..." Then, the darkness claimed her, and Sarah knew no more.


	15. Becoming Untouchable

**- chapter.15.becoming.untouchable -**

  
Sarah woke with a sudden painfulness that made her head spin. One moment, she was drifting in darkness. The next, her eyes snapped open and she had clenched her hands uselessly against the blanket on her bed.

"Jareth?" Sarah gasped, jerking herself into a sitting position so quickly that her back smarted. She looked around the room sharply, expecting to see Jareth standing with her, but she was alone in her room. She released her death-grip on her bed sheets, hands hurting as she slowly unclenched them. From below, she heard her father's voice calling her name. From the sound of his voice, he'd already called her once or twice.

"Sarah? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Sarah called back, but her heart rebelled at that single small word. Everything was _not_ okay.

_Of course it is,_ Sarah thought resolutely, standing slowly from her bed. _I'm back home, where I belong. And Jareth even reordered time for me, putting me back to the day after I first returned from the Labyrinth._

She crossed over to her parents bedroom, looking down at Toby's sleeping figure as she had done upon waking four days ago--except that now, the last four days were gone. She was repeating an action that she had done, for all intents and purposes, just that morning. Toby's rosebud mouth was pursed, and he looked incredibly peaceful. Outside the window--whole and unbroken--Sarah could see the streetlights flickering on up and down her street. From behind her, she heard a soft tread on the carpet, and her heart leaped into her throat.

_Jareth!_

But it was only her father. 

"Is he asleep?" he asked softly, coming up behind her, resting one warm hand on Sarah's shoulder gently.

"Yeah," Sarah said, equally soft.

"I'm really sorry about leaving you alone with Toby again today, Sarah. Adelle was frantic, though, and I knew I'd feel better if I could see her parents alive and well."

"How are Grandma Alice and Grandad Michael?" Sarah asked, remembering her manners.

"Oh, Grandma Alice's heart attack was such a mild one that the doctors barely even called it a flutter. They want her to stay a couple more days for observation, but she says she feels fine. She called a live-in nurse to stay with Grandad Michael until she can go home. She told Adelle and me that there was no reason for us to leave our lives. She's quite a woman, that Alice," Sarah's father finished admiringly.

"Yeah, she is," Sarah replied, turning to smile wanly up at her father. "I think I'm going to go to bed now. I'm tired."

"Of course," her father said, leaning down to kiss her forehead gently. "Thanks again for staying with Toby. You've been a real trooper about this whole thing. Good-night, Sarah."

"Good-night, Daddy," Sarah said softly, and left, crossing back to her own bedroom. She shut the door quietly behind her, then leaned against it, looking around her bedroom--which seemed alien to her. Everything was as it should be, but her stuffed animals were as unfamiliar as toys seen through a shop window, and her books could have been titled in Latin. Sarah shook herself, trying to rid herself of the uncomfortable feeling of oddness, and crossed over to sit on the edge of her bed. She glanced down at herself, realized she was still wearing her Renaissance gown, and raised her hands to remove it. Then, slowly, her hands dropped to her lap. She was not quite ready to part with her only connection to the Underground yet. There was a soft tap on her door, and she glanced up.

"Come in," she called. The door opened slowly, revealed Adelle. As soon as the door had opened enough to make room for his girth, Merlin bounded in, leaping up to cover Sarah's face in moist licks.

"I thought he might sleep in here tonight, since you were so good about staying with Toby when my mother was sick," Adelle said in place of a greeting. With that said, she carefully closed the door, and Sarah turned her attention to Merlin, who seemed to realize his good luck at being allowed to sleep in Sarah's room that night. He launched into another attack of licking Sarah's face, and she eventually had to gently push him away to avoid being drowned.

"That's enough," she laughed, smiling at the dog. "Oh, Merlin, I've missed you so much!" Sarah threw her arms around his shaggy neck, squeezing. He gave Sarah one last perfunctory lick before settling himself comfortably onto her bed to sleep. Sarah opened her mouth to scold him off the bed and onto the carpet, but the words died on her lips as she turned to look around her room again.

_Nothing seems right,_ Sarah thought, looking around in confusion. _It all looks different and odd._

Even Merlin looked wrong to her somehow, as if she couldn't recognize the sweet dog that had been her companion for the last six years.

_This won't do,_ Sarah thought, frowning. _I'll go to the park... if anything will make me feel at home, the park will._

Stealthily, trying to make no noise and wake Merlin from his sleep, Sarah snuck to her door, easing it open and shut without even the slightest rattle. She tiptoed downstairs and unlocked the front door, slipping into the warm, fragrant night.

_I'll only be a minute,_ she thought, easing the door shut.

The calm, residential streets were empty as Sarah raced toward the park. Her only companions were the songs of the summer night bugs, and they offered scant reassurance.

Suddenly, Sarah skidded to a stop, her loafers slipping on the soft grass as she realized she didn't really recognize the streets of her own town.

_But I've run this way a million times,_ Sarah protested mentally, panting hard through her open mouth. _I... I don't recognize it, though. The street names I know, and everything's familiar, but..._

It was a familiarity brought about by a repetitive dream, a familiarity that one knew was not reality. Sarah, still panting, frowned around her.

_I feel like an intruder here, as if I don't belong on these streets or in this town. But I've always lived here..._

Sarah turned toward the park again, running as if to leave behind her uncertainty. Her feet pounded onto the turf, and she stopped again, looking around herself.

_I _don't_ belong. That's just it... I don't belong here any more._ Sarah gave a weak, wavery laugh as the realization crashed over her. _I belong with Jareth in the Underground. I've never belonged here. I've never fit in. In the Labyrinth, I made friends instantly when I'd never made a friend so quickly here. I belong in the Underground, with Jareth. Jareth, whom I... love._

Sarah gave a little start, her hands trembling at her sides as she rolled the idea around in her head, as if looking for weaknesses in it's composition. _In love? With Jareth?_ She laughed then, her face brightening, the streetlight above her haloing her face. _Of course. I've loved him for so long... I would have realized it if I'd just stopped being such a thick-headed, stupid, stubborn idiot._ Then, out loud, crying the words up to the sky, "I'm in love with him! I love Jareth!"

The knowledge made her warm and happy inside, and she raced across the ornamental bridge to her recitation bench. She half expected Jareth to be sitting there when she arrived, and was disappointed to see he wasn't. But she laughed again, her ebullience too great to be destroyed.

"Jareth! I know where I belong!" She raised her arms, laughing out loud again, her heart singing in her breast. "I know who I am now, Jareth!" When there was no response, she raised her voice, shouting into the sky.

"Jareth! I know where I belong now!" When he still did not appear, Sarah felt some of her joy shrivel, and the first twisting of fear appeared in her heart.

"Jareth!"

_Oh, God, that was pitiful,_ she thought, scolding herself.

"Jareth!" Worse than pitiful. Her voice died entirely on her next cry, managing only "Jare" before it cracked and broke completely, leaving her in the ringing silence broken only by the singing crickets and cicadas.

_What if he isn't watching,_ Sarah thought wildly, tears prickling in her eyes. _What if he doesn't _know_..._

Giving it one last try, Sarah screwed her eyes shut, concentrating as hard as she could. In her mind's eye, she pictured Jareth's proud, beautiful, vulnerable face, the way he'd looked when she wept. She pictured his eyes, the radiant, dually colored windows to his soul. She pictured his hair, the carelessly messy mane of liquid gold. She picture his hands, his fine-boned, aristocratic hands that had touched her face with such trembling sweetness. And she pictured his kiss, the liquid fire his first kiss had sent through her veins, the comfort his second kiss had imparted in gentle caresses. With Jareth held tight in her mind, Sarah called out one last time, shouting his named both mentally and physically.

"Jareth!!"

The cicadas and crickets stopped their songs for a moment, then slowly resumed. Sarah felt her heart slowly sinking. He had not come. She had rejected him one too many times, and he did not want her any more, no matter how much he loved her. With fresh tears tingling behind her eyelids, Sarah turned away from the bench--and jumped. He stood barely three feet behind her. He was there.


	16. Home

**- chapter.16.home -**

  
"You called me." His voice was cool, collected. He was dressed all in black, from the imposing black boots on his feet to the thick black gloves on his hands, his huge dark cape fluttering behind him in the sudden breeze that stirred the trees in the park. He looked indifferent, cool, and unresponsive--and so beautiful. Sarah felt her heart break a little as she looked at him... then she was in motion. She was in his arms, weeping against his chest before she was aware she had moved. She wrapped her own arms tightly around his chest, crushing him to her as she sobbed against the soft material of his shirt.

"Sarah... Sarah, are you well?" The ice melted out of Jareth's voice, and his arms were moving to hold her, to impart comfort.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered between gasping heaves, her face a mess of tears. "I'm so sorry I asked to go. I'm so sorry I didn't realize sooner... I could have saved us both so much trouble, Jareth, I'm so sorry..."

"Whatever for?" Jareth asked, tilting her chin up with one hand, carefully wiping her damp cheeks with his other.

"For not realizing how much I love you."

Jareth's hand froze mid-wipe, his eyes going blank. It was as if something shattered in them, like glass that had been full of hair-line cracks finally giving under some great pressure. 

"What?" The word was the barest of whispers, and Sarah heard it only because the breeze had stopped, and all the singing bugs had hushed themselves for the moment.

"I love you, Jareth. I didn't realize it because I was so busy trying to resist you... but then I came home, and nothing was right. I don't belong here... I belong with you, in the Labyrinth. I should be with you, wherever you are. I wish I'd stopped being so stubborn sooner and just realized... but I do now. I know now. I love you, Jareth."

The shattered look on Jareth's face was twisting slowly into some horrible hybrid of pain and rapture, his eyes staring into hers with a slowly dawning hope.

"But... you left."

"I made a mistake, Jareth. Like you did, when you took Toby. I just hope you can forgive me, like I've forgiven you." She threw her arms around him again, squeezing him to her. "You were only trying to make me love you, Jareth. I understand, and I forgive you for it. It was a stupid thing to do... but I was much, _much_ stupider in trying to run from you."

"You... want to stay with me?" His voice sounded so fragile and weak, and Sarah pressed her lips to his throat, trying to offer him some small immediate comfort.

"I do, Jareth. I want to stay with you for as long as I live, and even longer."

Jareth was trying to smile at her now, but the expression kept dissolving into itself. He looked so vulnerable, so innocent. His arms wrapped around Sarah in a warm embrace then, tighter and tighter, and he whispered, "I don't see how you could ever love me."

"Because you are everything a Knight in Shining Armour should be, Jareth. Because you love me so much. Because you challenge me to be your equal, and never let me back down from you. I love you because I can see what you _are_." Sarah reached up, running her fingers through his hair as she had longed to for she didn't know how long, enjoying the silky texture of his mane in her fingers. "I'm just sorry I don't deserve you," Sarah added with a self-deprecating laugh.

"What? No, Sarah! You deserve much more than I could ever give you!" Jareth said, reaching up to cup her face in his darkly gloved hands. "You deserve a real Knight, someone as gallant and pure as you are. Sarah, I saw you for the first time when you were five, and you were too young to have built walls around your heart and soul. I saw who you _are_, deep inside where not even you can look anymore. I saw how brave you are, how good and kind you are. I saw how much love you have, and how much fiery passion is in your soul. I fell in love with your soul then, Sarah, and your soul is still there inside of you. You've hidden it from the world because you had to, because it hurt too much to let everyone see who you really were." He brushed his lips reverently over her forehead, whispering against her skin, "I can only hope eventually you'll take those walls down, and let me see your soul again."

Their third kiss was the most wonderful experience of Sarah's life. The kiss had all the comfort of coming home after being gone for a long time. It was the security of being tucked in by a loved and trusted parent, and the joy of finding some treasured item that had been long forgotten. Jareth's lips moved over hers sweetly and Sarah gave herself to the kiss wholly. When Jareth finally pulled back, Sarah felt dizzy and light-headed, as if effervescent champagne were running through her veins.

"Are you ready to go home?" Jareth asked softly. Sarah looked over her shoulder, and laughed--the huge main door to the castle was where her recitation bench had been, but over Jareth's shoulder she could see the park.

"How did you do that?" she asked, still giggling.

"It isn't too hard to bring our two worlds together for a few seconds." Gently, he tugged her into the Underground, and Sarah watched her old world fade from view, melting into the Goblin City.

"What about my father and step-mother?" Sarah asked, turning her face up to Jareth.

"I've implanted a few false memories. They think you're safely away in a private school that they had just enough money for. You'll be able to return to visit them once or twice a year, if you'd like. In the meantime, you'll be here."

"How terribly smart of you," Sarah whispered, snuggling her cheek against his solid chest.

"Yes, I rather thought so," Jareth said, gently twining his fingers through hers. "Now, shall we go in to a very early breakfast, or a very late dinner?"

She laughed brightly, giving the hand entwined with hers a gentle squeeze. "I don't care which... I haven't eaten since I had that pear in your garden, and I could use some food."

"Then we will go." He leaned down, planting a soft, trembling kiss against her forehead. "Oh, Sarah... I do love you so."

Sarah and Jareth headed up the steps into the castle, their faces shining. Sarah was not sure what was ahead of her, but she knew she would never lack for food or clothing or entertainment. Perhaps she would help Jareth rule the goblins, or perhaps she would learn to do magick of her own. Maybe she would start an enchanted garden full of impossibly colored flowers all her own, or maybe she would find a way to completely eliminate the Aljunnu from the Labyrinth. Everything was full of hazy possibilities, and wrapped around it all was the knowledge that through it all, she would be with Jareth. 

Honestly, Sarah couldn't think of another thing in all the worlds that she wanted more than that.

  


**_~ End ~_**


End file.
